Socializing While In Pain

Do I socialize when I’m in pain?

Yup, I socialize, otherwise I’d be a hermit!

Yup! Otherwise I’d be a hermit. Plus, very few friends can identify how much I’m in pain. My bff & my sister can tell by looking at me.. I have other friends & family who have learned the signs.

Mom can tell usually just by looking at me.. not always, but usually.. My sister is pretty good.. Her kids & hubby not so much – ironically I think the kid of hers that would recognize the best is her youngest, because he has seen me the most over the last few years.

My guy friend T has, over the last 3½ years learned quite a bit about how to read the non-verbal clues.

My BFF also has fibro & is sometimes a little too focused on her own fibro to catch my issues. Only reason I can gauge her easily is that she has an emotional response to her issues that I don’t even think she’s aware of.

My second BFF also has his own issues, and usually only sees me on better days.. I don’t think he’s even seen me at mediocre or worse in a long time..

Them there’s some of the Scouters I work with.. Raksha 13th & I have become good friends through Scouting & Rainbow I’ve known since grade 8 or 9, but through guiding & scouting as well. They are pretty good a picking things up.

There are other friends who are less prevalent in my life but even they can recognize some signs if I’m having issues

What I Can Do.

So, there is the basics of who I tend to see most, then the next thing is *what I can do*. Mind you the days when I’m seriously f****d up due to symptoms, I don’t talk to anyone unless I haveta Haveta HAVETA.

Now pain & other symptoms varyy from week to week, day to day, even hour to hour.. Fortunately in the last few years the hour to hour option seems to happen less and less frequently, but for a long time that is how I had to play it.

When my pain levels are super high, any communication is digital.. To everyone. If you’re lucky..

^{Digital Communication Only on my Worst Days, At Best}

Next level down:

• Mild exercise like walking my dog around the court
• Have company over for low maintenance visits
• Socialize for dinner with Mom & Dad

^{Exercise by walking the Dog Around the Court Is All I Can Handle Some Days.}

As my pain levels drop, I can be more sociable in activities that require less interaction such as:

• Hanging out with selects friends in a quiet environment, such as a campfire, living room, patio, poolside, dock.. This would be BFF’s, & T, for the most part
• Walking around the neighbourhood
• Watching the kids’ soccer games
• Visiting the family cottage for a few days
• Visiting the gym for a hot tub!

^{Hanging out with Friends, in Front of the Campfire, or Otherwise, Though we use Chairs – LOL}

As the pain levels drop a moderate to low level I can usually do the following:

• Karaoke
• General.Cub Scout Activities
• Marksmanship
• Hangout with friends in a noisier, bigger, busier location like a restaurant or bar
• Moderate exercise like the walks with my sister & the pups
• cub Scout meetings!
• Glamping at my BFF’s cottage
• Concerts (depending on who, I may go on a worse day & accept the consequences)
• Professional sporting events like the Leafs, TFC or The Rock.. & to a lesser extent, Argos, Jays or Raptors..

^{Concerts with Friends Are Always Fun!!}

So assuming my pain level is low, there is a lot I can do. I can:

• More strenuous exercise such as cycling
• Visit the gym for Aquafit, yoga, weights, or the track. I had gotten in a few slow Zumba classes in before COVID..
• I can Camp – not the glamping like at the cottage, but camping with friends, and even my Cub Scouts . In fact we were going to Camp Impressa for a year end camp earlier this month with my senior Cubs & the Scouts (See more in this post).. & I just went camping 2 weekends ago with T
• Sporting activities like soccer with the girls or golfing with T
• Some of the more physical activities in Cub Scouts.. Such as teaching how to put up tents, waterproofing the bedroll, setting up grey water, basic orienteering, limited kayaking/canoeing, etc..
• The Pheonix. – Dancing at the club!
• Hiking (like fairly flat, fairly short, nothing overnight – Second Marsh near me is a good example)
• Roadtrip!

Easy Hiking with Friends

What I can not do.

There are so many things now that I would like to do that I just not in the cards. These are activities the I’ve either done or were at one point on the bucket list. This includes activities such as:

• White water rafting. T wants to go – I can do the camping part, but not the rafting part
• Backpacking/ Hiking. This includes longer hikes, more challenging hikes, or overnight hikes. I can not lug an air mattress through the wilderness 😄
• Winter outdoor camping
• Amusements parks – can’t do most of the rides, and way too much walking.
• Skiing
• Horseback Riding
• Zip-lining (not sure I’d do that anyways)

_{^{Canada’s Wonderland, the Prominent Amusement Park in the Toronto Ontario Area.}}

What would you like to do that you know you will never do again?

RLS then Exercise.. Uh oh!!!

On Friday last week, I posted about issues with my RLS, but that wasn’t the end of it.

As I said, on Wednesday night I was having problems getting to sleep, big problems due to restless leg syndrome in all four limbs – very rare. So I went on the treadmill for 20 minutes then snuggled nicely into bed.

^{Walking on a treadmill can help burn off the restless feeling when my RLS flares.}

Thursday morning, I woke up & my legs had felt like I’d run before full marathon with zero prep the day before, instead of just 20 minutes.

So I started with the pain meds, the anti-inflammatories and the muscle relaxers that I do every day when I get up. The unexpected pain did eventually start to lessen more.

But Thursday nights are one of my cub nights with my third years, howlers from both packs. We’re helping them work on their Seeonee Award.

Fortunately, when this meeting was planned we weren’t aware if we were going to be in person or not so we planned a virtual meeting. The kids wanted to play Drawsaurus which is an online version of Pictionary. Lots of fun!

^{Drawsaurus is an online version of Pictionary! The boys love it!}

So I didn’t have to do anything. I did not have to prep much, other than just set up the game which took about 30 seconds. We played 4-5 rounds I believe. We could do this because it was a smaller group, just the four of them tonight.

So as we started we are having fun and I’m relaxing. Silly me, I text my sister and ask her if she wants to go walking tonight after my meeting, which we normally do on Thursdays.. Of course she responded in the affirmative.

I was actually starting to feel better at the end of the meeting – Yay!!

I make it to my sister’s for 9:00pm and we leave shortly thereafter walking the dogs. Our pups were both very well behaved tonight, strangely enough – they usually do not start calm & maintain that for most of the walk.

So our walk was uneventful and we walked the neighborhood just south west of us. There was nothing extraordinary about our walk in the way of physical exertion.

There was a coyote but that’s a different story altogether.

One thing about that walk however was the length. It was almost 11:00pm by the time we got back to her house. In steps that is over 10,000 and about 5½ miles (no clue why my Fitbit is still in miles)

^{God Help Me! Five miles & 11,000 steps for one casual walk.}

So take a guess how I felt afterwards. Horrible! My leggs were very painful. I’m thinking a 6 or 7 out of 10 on my pain scale..

I had a shower and the hot water was lovely- everything seemed to relax under the hot spray. Unfortunately it would return when the heat got moved to another spot. I think I need to go snorkeling in a hot tub! LOL..

So I medicated again, including my MMJ…

Guess how I felt the next day…

---

I was actually expecting to be in a flare the next morning… Surprisingly, my Leggs were sore.. pain at a 3, 3½.. was expecting 7 or so.

So, Yay! Not as bad as anticipated!