A New Day

I've been keeping myself busy the last month and haven't had time to blog much.  I am proud to announce I have been exercising 5 days a week, low impact aerobics, running, pilates, 30-50 minutes a day depending on how I feel.  If I can do it, you can too!  When I was first diagnosed and the doctor told me that one of the ways to combact this illness was exericse, I thought I was done for.  I had NEVER exercised before and I hated it.  I actually enjoy it now and look forward to it in the morning. I mix it up doing different things each morning, sometimes a couple of different things together.  You just have to find some things that you can do that you don't Hate and consistency is the key. Just keep going. 

Today I went to a new Rheumatologist and we are trying a new drug combination.  He said I'm doing all I can to fight the disease, we will try the new combination and hope for a little more relief in the pain area, but life goes on for me.  I find joy the small moments with my family.  My little Brinley is growing up so fast.  She is almost crawling.  When I put her in the little walker when she is at my house she gets herself moving all around the place.  She takes everything in with her little dark eyes.  You know she wants to be in the middle of everything but she just isn't quite big enough yet.  Once she is moving around, she and her older brother Korbyn are going to be quite the little mischievious pair. I won't stand a chance.

I wish I could spend every minute with my grandchildren, but that is just not in the plan for me right now.  I will take the moments I am able and be thankful for them! Find Joy where you can!!

Who Knew?

So, I did my first Pilates workout today!  Really? Me? 

Okay, so this all started when I started taking Lyrica.  This medication really helped my Fibro pain.  I felt an immediate change when the Dr. paired this with Sevella.  However, I also started gaining weight.... like rapidly.  Since I began the medication I have gained 25 pounds.  This might not sound like a lot to some people, but on my little 5 ft 1 inch frame, this is huge.  I approached the Dr. about this and his answer was, "well.... ya, that is a side affect, maybe limit your calories." Really?  It isn't like I'm eating everything in sight. This is why there are no pics of me at Disneyland!! Little self conscious here.....
     So I've been using the WII fit to exercise for the last year because we all know that exercise is a big part of fighting Fibromyalgia.  On my "good" days I've run/walked 'treadmill' style up to 5 miles, or done the aerobics, etc. I tried the yoga but the stretching was really hard on my back which is where my pain is located, so that didn't work for me. None of this has helped the weight gain problem. I keep it up for the fibro though.
     So Enter NETFLIX (BIG FAN!).  I'm cruising around this morning on What's new this week and I find FREE Pilates video. Sweet!  I decide to see if it is something I can do and the beginning workout is 10 minutes and it is relatively easy and didn't irritate my back at all.  Score! So I added this to my morning workout.  Let's see if I can get my body back with this.  It works for all the movie stars, right? Sigh. :0)

I'm Back

I know it's been awhile since I've written on my blog.  I feel like I kind of "went dark" for awhile.  I wanted this blog to be a positive place where anyone with chronic illness could go for some uplifting moments. But I have had some difficulties the past few months so I haven't felt much like writing. But even through the difficulties I have had some really amazing moments! 

San Fransisco was wonderful.  We crammed a lot of sight seeing into 3 days. We went to every tourist attraction there.  My favorite was alcatraz.  We also spent over a week with my daughter and grandkids just hanging out.  I had some good days, and some bad days. But mostly it was spent building some really great memories.

Then I had a spur of the moment trip home to spend a week with my mom, just the two of us.  It was a really special time for us.  We just spent girl time together.  We had never done this before and it was really a sweet, special time for us. I got to go to lunch with my favorite Auntie I hadn't seen in years. It was great.

Then.........the big one.  I have always wanted to go to Disneyland with all of my grandchildren (even before we had grandchildren this was a dream of mine).  In November it finally happened!

At this point I was having a lot of pain from my fibro, so I was taking life a moment at a time.  This trip was Magical for me.  I had to really enjoy every moment that I could.  My husband and I started the trip with my son and his wife and their two kids in Palm Springs.  We stayed in a Mansion (seriously!) provided by my daughter-in-law's parents.  We did nothing all day but swim in the pool and sit in the hot tub which did miracles for my back pain!   This place was awesome.  Our bedroom suite had a fireplace, an extra bedroom, bath and home gym. From here we went to San Diego and visited Sea World.  Then we met our daughter and family at Disneyland.  We went for 3 days straight. 

What a sweet and precious Moment!!  Having Sully give the kids a hug?  I wouldn't have missed this for the world.  I'm afraid I was not in hardly any pictures.  I had to be in a wheel chair all 3 days of Disneyland.  I couldn't walk around at all.  But I wouldn't have traded these special moments with my grandkids for anything.  I was able to ride on every ride they wanted me to go on with them.  I think we hit every kid ride there.

  Ok so here is the one picture I let my hubby take of me on my sweet ride:

I truly enjoyed the trip even though it was a challenge and I had to endure a lot of pain.  I've learned that you have to make a lot of trades. I am a work in progress. I know we all have the tendency to answer "I'm good" or "I'm fine" when someone asks how we are, when in reality we are not at all fine. But I know that my struggle is to strive to stay positive and work toward living the best life I can and look for those best moments in life that I can find.