{"id":758,"date":"2020-12-15T13:07:31","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T13:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/?page_id=758"},"modified":"2020-12-16T20:44:09","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T20:44:09","slug":"timer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/?page_id=758","title":{"rendered":"Timer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting back up from a flare up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to know what to call a deterioration in your health. Do you call it a flare up, a relapse, a decline? Do you say that your reprieve is at an end? I think we all use our own term to describe what we go through or we use a variety of them\u2026in the hope that one may stick and make the person we\u2019re speaking to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve had countless flare ups and relapses over the years. In fact, I\u2019ve had so many that I couldn\u2019t even put a number on it. So, why don\u2019t they get any easier? I should be a master at it but I\u2019m not because each flare up affects me differently and so each time my strategy has to be different. I feel like each time it occurs; it steals something from me. Every time you begin to build your life into something that you\u2019d be content to live in\u2026it\u2019s snatched away and you have to start all over again. Its soul destroying. To have fought so hard, to come so far, only to lose it all over again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, I\u2019ve watched those with Lyme disease and other chronic illnesses do this on a daily bias and I\u2019ve often wondered why. Why do they keep going after each and every loss? What keeps you fighting? Is it your friends, your family, is it the passion you have for a certain hobby of craft or gift that lets you feel free, is it your sheer stubbornness and your refusal to believe that this is all your life has to offer? I heard a quote, a while back and from someone whose name is long lost to me, which said that we shouldn\u2019t ask what the world can give us but what can we give it\u2026I think life is a bit of both for all actions, supposedly, have an equal and opposite reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which leads me onto what actions I\u2019m taking in the hope of a positive reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There\u2019s a lot of things I\u2019ve struggled with on this flare up but knowing my limits is definitely one of them. Before my flare up, I knew if I did X, Y and Z then that would be my daily allowance of energy used up and if I went over that that I\u2019d suffer for it the next day. But the bar\u2019s been shifted, X, Y and Z no longer = me being tired but still managing the stares come bedtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve found I can\u2019t tell what my body is capable of anymore, I\u2019ll feel able to go for a short walk and then discover that evening or the next day that, actually, it was too much for me and all my symptoms will flare up for a few days. It feels like you\u2019re being punished for simply trying to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u2026I have discovered this one, very inexpensive, trick. Although I started using it to help me remember my new tablet regime, which has gone from three rounds a day to eight, as they have to be taken as such ridged times. I then started using it in my daily life and it\u2019s been working rather well so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I use the timer on my phone, to not only remind me of when to take my tablets but to structure my day. So that, when I go for a walk, I will set it for 30 minutes and at the end\u2026even if I feel ok to continue, I\u2019ll go home. If I still feel ok the next week, I extend it to 35 minutes. This way I\u2019m testing my limits but in a very gradual and gentle way. I do this for virtually everything now, giving myself a set time to do a task and then setting the timer again to give myself a rest. My memory has become quite poor with this flare up, hence the need to remind myself to take my meds, and I often forget to rest or I forget what I\u2019ve actually done during the day and so overdo things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\u2019ve started to be able to do more again, I\u2019ve found the timer also pushes me to go that little bit further when I\u2019m tired but my body has more to give. There\u2019s a hard line between pushing yourself to rebuild muscle mass and strength and overdoing things \u2013 knowing the difference isn\u2019t always easy to differentiate but I\u2019m a strong believer in listening to your body\u2026in knowing the point where you can push your body for more and the point where you need to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is something I\u2019m far from perfect at and by that, I mean, I often listen and then ignore and then suffer later. Living with Lyme is a constant lesson in self-restraint between what you want to do and what you can do and that\u2019s a lesson my stubborn brain is still learning but using the timer has been a bigger help to me than I had ever thought it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Getting back up from a flare up. It\u2019s hard to know what to call a deterioration in your health. Do you call it a flare up, a relapse, a decline? Do you say that your reprieve is at an end? I think we all use our own term to describe what we go through or… Continue reading Timer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":765,"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/758\/revisions\/765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morven-may.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}