Some Not-so-Obvious Causes of Fibro Flares! (Part 1)

Recently I had been dealing with a fibro flare. I was doing all the usual things to get a handle on it: resting, stretching, not over-doing things, staying hydrated, etc., but the flare just would not give way.  I was even waking up In the middle of the night in horrible pain, stressed, chest hurting, etc.

Finally I realized that each night I awoke, I had an upcoming event on my mind. I had been dreading the event for weeks. In some ways, my dread was the same as most people would have, however, I had some unique and legitimate reasons for dreading it as well.

Now, I have been at this a long time, so saying, “No!” is something I have learned how to do. This, as you will find out later in this series, was not the usual “just say no” type situation. It is actually something I will reschedule in the future. Regardless, it was stressing me out just the same, so I made the decision then and there that I was just not going to do it. I immediately felt better.

The flare is not completely over, but I have no doubt that just making my decision will go a long way toward getting past it. Today, no doubt because I am feeling better, it hit me that there is a good blog topic here: Some Not-so-Obvious Causes of Fibro Flares!

Because I do not want the blog post to be too long, I am going to break it up into a series of blogs. It will cover a broad range of topics including physical issues, emotional issues, social issues, interpersonal relationship issues, and spiritual issues. I will try not to get into too much “story telling” but I will briefly identify how I determined that each was indeed contributing to a flare, what I found that helped get me past it, and what I have done to try to avoid repeating the same thing in the future.

Some may be thinking this will be a waste of time but I assure you fibro flares are not as straight forward as many think. We can probably all agree that family, friends, employers, children, spouses, parents, and even health care providers are often very unaware of things that can bring on a flare. However, I have found that often I have been as oblivious to the obvious as those around me were. Sometimes, even more so.

It is my hope that you will get some insight into your own flares during this series. Also, I hope some of you will comment or contact me to share your own discoveries of and solutions for Some Not-so-Obvious Causes of Fibro Flares!

Meshea Crysup, fibroLIFE©

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