Keeping The Smile On

Happy Spring Time! Whether you celebrate Easter, or the Spring Equinox or the myriad other holidays around this time, I'm wishing you the very best. Because sometimes, in this time of Nature's rebirth, some of us are miserable!

Allergies are creeping in, making migraines easier to get and yesterday I saw the Spring's first mosquito here in Michigan. And I was the victor, Rawr! Feel my wrath!

So my subject today is to keep smiling through the changes in temperature and the typical worsening of symptoms. It is not going to be easy, my friends, as we all know but as I'm fond of saying lately: "This too shall pass."

It is only too easy to let our Fibro get us down but look through the list of supplements I've provided over the last few weeks and find something extra to help you fight it. Fatigue? There are plenty of energy supplements. Stuffy with allergies? Clean out your nose two or three times a day with a saline solution. It really does help to alleviate that bunched feeling in your nasal passages. Skin itching? I recommend getting an over-the-counter Eczema lotion that can help give your nails a break. Let me know what is wrong and I will scour my resources to see what we can come up with.

Through this bad patch, we have to fight more aggressively to get out our higher percentage days. You should see my nightstand table. Alavert (the strongest allergy med my body can kinda tolerate), my nose solution, my eczema bottle of lotion, my CryoDerm MSM topical pain reliever, Butalbital in case my migraines get too bad...a plastic bag...in case my migraine gets too bad, and a roll of toilet paper to blow my nose constantly. And that isn't including the vast amounts of vitamin bottles.

Oh yes... I am battling and not doing too bad this year, because through it all I am smiling, and that is what we all must do.

It will also help with those around you this holiday! When they see you smile, they will think you feel better.

Remember, it is okay if people take the stance "But you look just fine so you must feel fine". Sometimes ignorance is bliss to our families. We don't have to prove to anyone that we're sick. Be who you are. If you're hunched in pain, fine, you need to be and that is okay.. if you're in pain but walking with your head up and a smile on your face, it is okay that only YOU know just how brave and strong you are.

Well...you and all of us who suffer. It is a shame some of us do not have people who understand our condition fully in our lives. I have to tell you, one of my favorite moments lately was when I met a woman who I admitted I had Fibro to and she said, "and yet you're here with a smile on your face and keeping your pain in. That is such a huge accomplishment".

That is the kind of encouragement we all need. Recognition about what we have, and how well we are doing just to be out and about. The more respect we get the better we feel and the easier it is to keep the smile up front and the pain in back.

So this is me telling you that I am PROUD of those of you who come to the blog and read the advice and the supplements and use what you can every day to get out of bed and put a smile on for your husband, your children, your parents, your friends.

YOU are my inspiration, my army of positive fighters who push themselves every day. Your letters, your messages, your love and sometimes, yes even your anger, push me to encourage you. It's a very good circle to be in.

Enjoy the season start, my friends, and do so with a beautiful smile on your face.

All my best wishes for those (sometimes elusive) 98% days!
Gin