The magic healing power of the pooch

October 8, 2016

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I saw my naturopath the other day and she asked about my recent health. I had two answers: one set for before the pup’s visit and the other set for during.

But now he’s been gone for a week and I miss him horribly. And I’m not feeling as great, either.

It was a nice coincidence that he arrived the same day the weather changed. Summer sucks for me, and my symptoms ease when the temperature and humidity drop. I was simply lucky that those changes started the day my mom dropped him off at my place.

Then for 8 days we cuddled, we walked, and he kept me on a schedule. Like it or not, I had to take him out 3-4 times per day. I usually didn’t want to, but once we were outside, I figured we might as well walk a bit. After all, it made him so happy.

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Every time I took him for a walk, I went much farther than usual. Then on the way home, I’d take a longer route so he could walk more. Or I’d get home, then walk a few more blocks and then back. Because he loved it.

I should have been fatigued, but I wasn’t. The change in weather helped, but not that much. I was tired each evening, but not fatigued, and that makes a huge difference.

Then we would cuddle. I learned when he was most likely to cuddle and I changed my schedule to get more cuddle time! He was cuddly in the morning after his breakfast, so I set my alarm earlier so we’d have more cuddle time between his breakfast and mine. Seriously. (This photo was taken in the evening. I tried to balance the laptop on one leg while he slept against me. Heaven!)

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I had less pain, too. Even with all of that walking, my toes hurt less. And the rest of me hurt less. Or maybe I just noticed it less. Either way, I loved it.

Plus I saw more people. Even though I didn’t see many friends while I had him (not his fault – some of my plans fell through when someone got sick) I talked to a lot more neighbors. Everyone wanted to pet him. We were stopped constantly when we walked down the street. I was amazed at what a difference it made in my mood to be able to talk to so many people.

In general, I was happier. Just happier. Every single thing I did was better with him around.

When I had to give him back to my parents I almost cried. When they got him, though, my mom kept saying that I looked happier than she’d seen me in a long time. And I was.

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One day I’ll have a dog of my own. In the meantime, I’ve asked my parents if I can borrow this special guy for a few days next month. Because he truly is the best medicine I could ask for.

3 Comments | Fatigue, Healthcare, Isolation, Medication, Pain, Raves, Symptoms | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Best. Houseguest. Ever.

September 25, 2016

img_20160925_090133My parents are on vacation this week, which means I get to hang out with this cutie for 8 full days! Yay!

After just a few hours, I was already feeling happier than I had in a long time. Lucky for me, our fall weather arrived around the same time the pooch did, so it was cool and dry yesterday. We took a short walk and sat down in a popular area. I read a book, stopping frequently to talk to people who wanted to pet him.

I’m a friendly person, so I often talk to strangers, but never like this. I must have spoken to at least 2 dozen people. And this sweetie loves to be pet, so he was thrilled to have 2 dozen people petting him throughout the afternoon. img_20160925_112223

I got a lot more exercise than usual, too. I know that I can’t keep up this level of activity every single day, but how great that on a sunny, cool day I was able to spend more time outside than I normally would, thanks to the furball from heaven. Even better, when I got home and felt too tired to do anything, he jumped up on the couch next to me and settled in for a cuddle. It couldn’t have been better!

He helps my pain, he helps my fatigue, he makes me feel less lonely, and he’s just wonderful to be around. Who could ask for more?

I look forward to the day I have my own canine companion. In the meantime, this guy and I will be living it up this week!

Please share photos of your pets in the comments. Today it’s all about pets!

 

3 Comments | Fatigue, Isolation, Limitations, Medication, Pain, Raves, Support, Symptoms | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Sugar, fat, and pain

September 7, 2016

Chocolate! Potato chips! Cookies! Pizza!

I’m in pain, and I want sugar and fat and I want it NOW!

But why?

To some extent, I know that I want sugary and fatty foods more when I’m in pain because they’re comforting. I’ve read the research about how sugar affects the brain in a similar way that heroin does. I get it.

And when the pain is especially bad, I allow myself to eat more junk than usual. So maybe it’s also a bit of that association. Those are probably why I wanted sugar this morning.

But now it’s different. Now it’s a need more than a desire. Like when I crave a hamburger and then a few hours later I get my period. My body is saying: you’re about to lose blood, you better eat some iron. It makes perfect sense. But I feel that same kind of craving right now for fatty and sugary foods and I can’t imagine why.

Are my energy reserves low from fighting the pain? Is this my body’s way of telling me I need to beef them up? (so to speak….) Is is something else along those lines?

I’ve learned a lot about my body in recent years, but this is one mystery I don’t know how to solve. It will have to wait until later though. Right now, I need to go forage in the kitchen….

What about you? Do you experience these kinds of cravings? What do you think causes them? How do you handle them?

2 Comments | Expectations, Pain, Symptoms | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

P.A.I.N.

August 31, 2016

It’s one of those days. Well, it’s one of those weeks, actually. For now. Because of course I don’t know how long this will last. It could be months or years.

The thing about chronic pain that a lot of people don’t understand is that it isn’t necessarily consistent. For me, I have different kinds of pain to different degrees in different parts of my body at different times.

Maybe one day my knees are brutal but the rest of me feels ok. And another day my toes hurt so much I can hardly stand up and my wrists are just sore. Maybe my knees are on fire while my neck is throbbing. Some of it is predictable and some of it isn’t and that’s just the reality.

For several years now, the variation has always fallen within a certain range. My toes hurt up to a certain point in a certain way, my knees hurt up to a different point in a different way, etc. I got used to that. I knew how to handle that.

I don’t know why, but something changed. My knees have hurt a lot more lately, and in a different way from before. There’s a sort of stabbing pain followed but what feels like a loss of structural integrity, though I usually manage to not fall but shifting my weight briefly.

Even worse, my wrists have started to hurt in an all-too-familiar way. This is the pain that I had 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 9 years. It isn’t quite as severe as it used to be, but it’s the same type of pain. Occasionally (maybe 1-3 times per hour) it gets worse for a few minutes. The only thing that ever helped was a medication that I’d rather not take, but I will if this continues. But it did help. That was 15 years ago (the first time I took it) and 7 or 8 years ago (the second time I took it.) It’s only been about a week, so I’m hopeful it will go away.

Maybe it’s the weather? Maybe I did something to trigger it? Is it a coincidence that my knees and wrists got worse at the same time? Are they related?

All I know is that I’m in a scarier type of pain than I have been for a while now. That’s the thing: it’s emotional. The pain in my knees is bad, but I can walk through it. The pain in my wrists isn’t much worse, but for some reason it’s limiting what I can do. And for many years it limited my ability to write, to type, to cut my meat, to brush my hair, to wipe my ass…. I’d understandably rather not go back to that place.

So now I wait. I wait and hope. I hope that the pain diminishes.

Because I accept that I will be in pain, but I don’t want to be in this level of pain, in this type of pain, in this part of my body.

3 Comments | Expectations, Frustration, Pain, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

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