Where you Live: Body knowledge.

Hello friends!

Today has been a very good day pertaining to the symptoms.  I haven't taken anything for the discomfort or fatigue since Sunday morning, and I'm feeling good - even now.  This is nothing less than a miraculous and merciful respite in the pain.  What an answer to prayer!  Yet it is days like yesterday and today that really make me worry.  It was this kind of good-ok-bad-terrible-bad-ok-good cycle that disguised the severity of my condition for so long this summer.  This is where questions nagged me in my every waking hour...


"Are you sure it was that bad?  Fatigue - not just regular tired?  Maybe it was ___ instead...?"  


I am so grateful that now that I have had so much experience with Lyme's, I can tell the difference between regular tired (late night studying, worked out too hard, etc) and Lyme's tired.  I know when I've just taken too many flights of stairs and when my joints are genuinely inflamed from Lyme's.

Here is my advice to you, dear:  know your body, and know it well.  Know what's pain from external discomfort (my shoe-laces are too tight) and what's pain from internal turmoil (my feet are wailing in agony from wearing those heels all day yesterday).  Here's a list of things that you can take into consideration when you get to know your awesome vessel of life:

• From the Heart - know your resting heart rate, what healthy/normal breathing feels like, and your blood pressure.  If these change, you could be watching a scary movie, or having a mild heart attack, so get to know your heart!

• Use your head - know the difference between a sinus headache, a tension headache, and a real migraine.  The first two can be cured with Vick's Vapo-rub and a good scalp/neck massage, but don't deny yourself real medicine if you need it for something more serious.

•  Feelin' HOT HOT HOT! - I run at 97 degrees F when healthy - what's your number?  Are you cold because the room is freezing, or are you going into shock form a panic/anxiety attack?  Know the difference - prevent frostbite and physio-emotional trauma alike. Observe the opposite for when your hot.

• Macho Muscles - So you played football for three hours yesterday - are you sore from keeping up with the young whipper-snappers, or did you snap a tendon? Is there nerve damage involved? Be nice to your tendons, they're not very forgiving.  Know what your soft-tissue pain means.

• Join(t) Me - You're stiff when you stand after sitting too long, you're knees pop when you squat, your wrist clicks, etc. etc. Some joint discomfort is expected when you're stuck at a deck or in a chair all day, but take stock of what's normal, acceptable, and healthy.  Be good to your'e joints, because once they go, every movement you make becomes painful.

I could put some more specific check-points here, but then you get into age and gender differences.  Please, for my sake, listen to your body and be good to it.  Wear sunscreen, wear DEET TICK REPELLENT, stay limber and agile, and eat your gosh-darn vegetables.  :)

All my Love,

~Melissa