I haven't been on here in a while. Ive been out photographing a lot and between those days photographing are the even harder days of recovering. What do you all do to recover when you have overworked yourself? How do you cope with the fatigue and pain?
Welcome back Kittychemcat! Nice to know your friends are still here isn't it?
Most of us have different tricks we use when flaring or overdoing. My favorites are stretching either in a heated pool or on a yoga mat. I make sure I am taking my NASIDs on a schedule. For me it is either Celebrex 200 mg twice a day or Naprosyn OTC 440 mg twice a day. I also add Tylenol 1000 mg three times a day which I find together work even when each alone does not. But it works best on a schedult instead of just now and then when it hurts. I soak in a hot tub with 2C of Epsom salt in it. I use Salonpas topical pads or BioFreeze OTC. I also schedule quiet days. I work with PT as often as my insurance allows and have learned some tricks from them that helps. I do one activity for 20 minutes the rest then do a different activity for 20 minutes using a different set of muscles or limbs. Sometimes I can work for an hour and rest for 10 and sometimes not. The disease is nothing if not ever changing so I try to assess it everyday. Most of us struggle to find our perfect mix of activity and rest. Good luck and welcome back.
Sleep is really important to me when I’ve overworked myself. I use a meditation app on my phone to help me drift off faster into a deeper sleep, and melatonin to increase the quality of sleep (particularly useful if I’m inside all day or jetlagged - if I get plenty of sunlight not really necessary).
Gentle flow yoga if I can - always uncomfortable at the start but I feel much better by the end. If not capable of anything much I sit in the spa at my local gym to warm everything up and get moving.
Wish I could be in bed right now as a matter of fact!
Thanks! Yes it is nice to know that haha. I wish I had a pool! I'm going to see if my rheumy can prescribe pool therapy to me because i need some kind of movement other than walking around and taking photos! getting a PT sounds helpful as well! I will bring that up at my next appointment!
michael in vermont said:
Welcome back Kittychemcat! Nice to know your friends are still here isn't it?
Most of us have different tricks we use when flaring or overdoing. My favorites are stretching either in a heated pool or on a yoga mat. I make sure I am taking my NASIDs on a schedule. For me it is either Celebrex 200 mg twice a day or Naprosyn OTC 440 mg twice a day. I also add Tylenol 1000 mg three times a day which I find together work even when each alone does not. But it works best on a schedult instead of just now and then when it hurts. I soak in a hot tub with 2C of Epsom salt in it. I use Salonpas topical pads or BioFreeze OTC. I also schedule quiet days. I work with PT as often as my insurance allows and have learned some tricks from them that helps. I do one activity for 20 minutes the rest then do a different activity for 20 minutes using a different set of muscles or limbs. Sometimes I can work for an hour and rest for 10 and sometimes not. The disease is nothing if not ever changing so I try to assess it everyday. Most of us struggle to find our perfect mix of activity and rest. Good luck and welcome back.
sleep is important to me to when that happens! and huh i guess thats why i sleep so good once I've been in the sun for a while! I use audio books to help myself drift off. i find that the readers typically have quiet voices and speak in a gentle monotone that puts me out haha.
Jen said:
Sleep is really important to me when I've overworked myself. I use a meditation app on my phone to help me drift off faster into a deeper sleep, and melatonin to increase the quality of sleep (particularly useful if I'm inside all day or jetlagged - if I get plenty of sunlight not really necessary).
Gentle flow yoga if I can - always uncomfortable at the start but I feel much better by the end. If not capable of anything much I sit in the spa at my local gym to warm everything up and get moving.
Wish I could be in bed right now as a matter of fact!
I try to brave the day as well, although i do get really bad pain as i tend to do stupid things that overwork myself (like trying to jump fences to get photos in abandoned places) I do get the "haven't slept in a week" feeling once in a while and like you I try to push through, but if i have time around 3 or 4pm I take a nap.
Thanks! I'm glad you like the new picture! I let my friend use my new camera and she made me pose for her because I apparently make my friends pose for me to much haha anyway it came out pretty good so I decided to use it! And I agree, the most important thing to me is that I've been getting out and taking pictures as well. It keeps me happy so I'm not just in my room all day, that can get depressing and I don't want that!
sybil said:
I can feel great for days but I just cannot avoid the down ones in between. I guess that means I am overdoing it. For pain, my rheumy recommends exactly the same combination as Michael does (except we call Tylenol 'Paracetamol' over here ..... I've been wondering what Tylenol was for ages!)
Bad days don't usually mean severe pain for me though, it's more a case of waking up feeling like I haven't slept for a week. And to be honest I haven't found anything that helps with that. So I try to be a big brave girl and just get on with it & hold out until bedtime. I do find such days very depressing & I could easily get very negative & foul tempered - that's what I try to avoid!
Also, love the new profile pic. Is that one of yours? And the way I look at it, while of course you need the coping strategies for tricky days, the most important thing is that you've been taking photographs.