Working With Fibro

I work a 40 hour per week desk job. I too hurt all of the time. In addition to fibro, I have severe osteoarthritis in my cervical spine, and it affects my right shoulder. You guessed it; I'm a righty. It gets so painful to type, use the mouse, etc.

I get up and walk around, I do some of my physical therapy stretches I learned to help stretch tight neck and shoulder muscles, but it just hurts to do that too. I have no answers for you, just understanding. I hope your vacation is as pain free as it can be.

I don't work a full-time job. I've been lucky that I was already self-employed when I got sick, of course that just meant that I didn't have a boss to fire me. I still lost a lot of income because I was unable to work. I still can't work like I used to. I'm trying to finish my degree and right now have two long days (9:30-5:30, 9:30-7) and the days after each of those days I'm pretty useless. So, I have class 2 days a week, recover 2 days a week and then the other 3 days I week I try to balance time with my husband, work, blogging, and everything else.

I give major props to anyone with Fibro who continues to work full time.

I work as well, but can combine moving with desk work.

My best suggestion is to not worry too much about what cannot be helped. In life, we have little say in how some things turn out. My credo is that if I cannot affect the hat are a lost cause.

Try cutting the pill in half. I often will do that. Also, I will periodically take half my pain med in the morning, followed by the other half later, before lunch.

I'm by myself too Tango so I know where you are coming from. It's hard when you have to do everything and can't afford to hire it done.

Remember, there is only so much you can do. Also remember, this was the first week with this schedule! It might get a little better as your body becomes more acclimated to the extra activity. Give it a chance and you might get your wish.

Sherrine

I work full time and have since my fibro first developed four years ago. I'm also a single mom but my kids are 21, 17 and 15 so when they are in the right mood they are more helpful than trouble. Of course that changes with their moods.

Things I've found that help:

I work for a large corporation so I was able to have an ergonomic assessment. I have a sit/stand desk, footstool, keyboard tray with ergonomic keyboard and a trackball instead of a mouse.

Tai Chi twice a week to help my balance, strength and with stretching. I also practice the moves nearly every day to keep up the benefits.

Acupunture, this was honestly the biggest help as my tight muscles really respond to acupunture. Before I started some of my muscles were so tight they felt like they were made from molded plastic.

I'd take 600 mg of Advil with 1/2 of a hydrocodone when my pain is out of control. This honestly is the best mixture for me, better than a whole hydrocodone.

I also take Savella, Malic Acid, D-Ribose, vitamin d and vitamin b.

I'm currently working with a naturapathic doctor on diet adjustments.

I hope these give you some ideas.

I work sitting down full time as well. I didn't answer this at first because I work at home which gives me certain advantages (short commute, lol) that people don't have that have to drive every day. My job gives me the ability to schedule doctor's appointments and make the time up later as long as I get the work done. it's been really helpful as I search for what is causing some of my issues and work on alternative therapies to help with pain (counselor to help me work through pain management issues, massage therapist, etc).

It dawned on me today that even though I do work at home, I still sit at a desk all day. I just have some options available to me that aren't for everyone. 5 years ago in April I stepped down the last step from my upstairs office and rolled my ankle on a bunched area rug at the bottom of the stairs. I broke every bone in the ankle and had chips floating. The first year was about the surgery to correct and put in a metal piece and screws. On my first day walking again, I missed a stair and fell down 7 stairs onto my tile floor and crushed L2 & L5. The following year they had to take the hardware out of my ankle due to the extreme pain and after that surgery healed, they diagnosed me with CRPS. I just regained most of the range of motion in my ankle in the last year. I followed that with snapping my plantar fascia muscle on my opposite foot and the resulting bad gait for months threw out my back, etc.

The only reason I explain this is that there was a time when my down the hall commute was a very big deal taking minutes instead of seconds and wearing me out in the process. My husband and daughter had to make all my meals for the day and bring them up before they left because I couldn't move around downstairs or make it downstairs without assistance and a wheelchair. I developed work habits around that because I hated asking anyone for anything else. My daughter was only 11-12 during the worst of this and while she was very sweet, I hated having her wait on me day and night. Bad enough that both accidents happened while only she was home.

So ... work habits ..... my mother bought me a softsided purse that looks like an expensive Vera Bradley (I actually had people ask where I found that pattern because they liked it better) but was actually from one of the Christmas tree stores. The key point to it was that it held a lot and had very short handles. It was ideal for carrying while I was on crutches and took up very little space while I was in a wheelchair. Later, it was easy to work with while out and about. I got in the habit of storing everything I would need in it and carrying it with me to every room I go to. The contents have changed over the years to match my needs.

I'm often on conference calls taking notes for much of my day. The only things I can use are what I brought with me to my desk. So, I pack all my meds, lotions for pain and for face and arms, hand cream that smells nice (it is something I'm learning to use to help with bad flares), tweezers, a bandaid or two, Neosporin cream and ointment, eczema cream, contact solution, fabric stain remover in a packet, mini toothbrushes with pics, my tens machine (both are pretty small and compact), cables for charging phone, etc, chapstick/lip gloss, a bit of tinted BB cream in case my face needs a quick pick me up and anything else that I can pack in there.

I also have my glucose meter and a sheet of exercises I am supposed to do. When I was travelling, I kept this in a desk drawer at my other site. No one knew what was in it and it gave me access to all the little things I need (I have even carried a little container of honey for sweetener in a plastic bag). With that little bag, I feel confident wherever I go that I can get by for the day.

Now that I don't travel, I added my Sunbeam neck heating pad to the mix. When my shoulders and/or neck get tight and painful, I throw that on as well. I have a hard time getting more than a few minutes for the day to run to the kitchen. When I had a desk at work, I also kept Kind bars, healthy canned soup, a bowl and a spoon in there. When I was travelling to my alternate site, I never knew when I would be free, but I always had access to a microwave day or night. I had one bad day where after 14 hours, I lost it because I hadn't eaten. It was witnessed by one of the guys who worked for me and the next day he brought me granola bars and a couple of quick health shakes to keep in my desk. They had never seen me upset before and it threw them for a loop. I was really embarrassed and vowed to never let myself get to that point again.

As usual, I can't write short posts, lol. Just wanted to share some of my survival tricks in the hopes that it might help someone.