Ahhhh! at last a nice, warm, beautiful, sunny day!!! It is about 76 above.
Serenity - I hope you are not flooding! Winnipeg is having lots of rain, aren't they? Not good. If you buy a headset and connect it to your computer, you can talk over MSN to other people. I like it because it saves typing. You can type as well. It is free and the connection is USUALLY good. Headsets can be bought for about 25.00. If you just get a microphone, the noise will bounce back at you . Good for you Serenity, I joined ww not so long ago myself.
Candice - nice Irises. I love them. Used to have 3 plants that had tons of flowers on them.
Joanne - I think the knee brace thing is good, but then you probably have one, as you have had this problem before. That popping in and out must really, really hurt. I don't have problems with my knee, but occassionally I get a problem with the knee caused by the disc in the lower back. Nothing helps it, as it is a nerve thing. Just one big miserable time when that happens.
Meme - just don't think about anything, make sure you take time in the morning or afternoon, to escape outside on your patio - grab a cup of tea, coffee, or whatever and just sit. A good idea is when your Mom is resting, or perhaps she also would like to sit outside. JUST MAKE SURE AND TAKE AT LEAST 1 HOUR FOR YOURSELF!!!!!
I have thought of getting the knee brace but I have a lot of swelling that doesn't go down and I have been afraid to use one. I also have a fluid retention problem. I will ask the Dr. when I see him if I can use one. My hubby is afraid for me to use it unless the Dr. says ok. I used a wrap bandage some years ago on my rt.leg and couldn't stand it. It hurt much worse.
Serenity- You did a good thing going to WW. You took that awful first step. Be sure to drink the water.Get your exercise. You will do fine
Meme- Happy is right .Take time for yourself. Set a time every day just for you.
Happy - How are you doing at WW? It has really been hot here. They said this has been the hottest Spring on record. I hate to think what summer is going to be like.
Hello Mima, Candice.Ally
Bye..Joanne
Hi Guys. I think we have like 5 nice days a year in NY...and of course, I work on those days!
Today it is 65 degrees and rainy and yesterday it was so hot I couldn't sleep.
this doesn't do my fibro any good.
Joanne...I can barely make 20 minutes on the treadmill at nite this time of year cause I am outside walking the dogs, and am pooped when I finally come inside. Do you have an incline? I have mine at 4.5. Maybe that is too high.
Anyone else do the treadmill???
TIME just for ME!!! You've all gotta be kidding! That's a whole new concept that I can't even imagine.
Joanne, an elastic knee brace without the hole...one that is not too small for you...will not hurt your knee...even if it is swollen. It will help the swelling and keep it from going out of place. The reason I know this for a fact is that both of my knees started going out of place when I was 9 years old. I tried ACE wraps but they only hurt...especially if you didn't wrap them just right and with the right amount of gradient pressure. The elastic knee braces...just a little big...will give you a lot of support without extra pain. Take a look at this one: http://www.kneesupport.com/wm/sleeve-15.htm
You can usually find braces like this one at the drug store or even Wal Mart...but be sure not to get one that is too short! The one in the link I sent you is nice and long but the shorter ones tend to ride down and push down against the knee cap! They're not as comfortable as the longer ones. I have two of them and there are times that I wouldn't be able to walk without them!
Happy..I like your word yappy! so now it's yappy Happy!
Meme...I had to use one of those suport things on my arm but never my knee. It felt good at first but then the pressure of it started to hurt. My arm is very sensitive to touch even. My whole body is from the Fibro really. I could not stand to wear panty hose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They hurt me too! I am jsut one big pain!!!!
Joanne...hope you get some help with that knee. Try the brace and see if it helps or call your doc first.
I do the tredmill Ally but my incline is broken. I have not used it latley though, but in the winter time it is the only exercise I get! I need a new one but it sits in the living room in front of the TV. Not a pretty sight but no where else to put it!
Serenity..good for you and your daughter..you will love the program and don't get discouraged if she loses faster!!!! I am hurting too because of the weather. I could scream!!!!!!!!!!!
Dh came home in a bad mood, my son called and is not feeling well and I still hurt and am tired from all that cleaning on Monday! Everyone is getting losts of rain around here but us!!! How can that be........it is flooding everywhere and we just would like a little! Oh poop! Life is just not fair is it!
My Lilly of the valley, they had such a ncie smell!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just lost my post!!!!!!!!Hi everyone. My husband's friend called yesterday and I thought it was Brad and said something sexual to him. Haven't stopped laughing since. Sounds like the brace woul help Joanne. But have the surgery and get it over with. I had put off my rotator cup and I couldn't do anything before it was done. And it healed fast. Meme-you have to give yourself that time-no one is going to give you permission except yourself. I lay down every day at 12:30 and nap while the soaps are on and then do needlework.The fibro demands it. Happy-send some 76 degree weather-it's only in the 60's here. And rainy. Beautiful flowers again Candice. Hi Ally. I have been listening to my daughter's adventures in singledom. It's not easy!!!!!!Hi Serenity-I love your name!!!Bye Mima
Well I can never remember all the names so will just type my message.
I know about arms and elbow pain. Don't you just hate those
people who try to steer you to your seat etc. by grabbing you behing your arm or your elbow? I almost scream out loud.
I have a tread mill but it is not electric. I do have it on a very slight incline. I use it but not often enough. I find that 20 mins. on there is enough for me. If I go over 20 mins. I have more pain the next day. When I mall walk I can walk about 1 hour. Just a difference in what muscles are working I guess.
I love your lilly of the valley. Mine are water logged but blooming.
All our hanging baskets had to come down and get tipped over on the ground. Our back lane is like a lake. I really feel sorry for the people in the small towns, some are evacuating. The Red River has risen. N.D. & Minn. had so much rain and the river is
rising steadily, and of course coming north to Winnipeg.
I am trying to help hubby - smash out old cement step. lol I am
not much help.
One thing I have learned in life is that you have to some time
for yourself. This has to come first or you are not much good
to anyone else - you will wear yourself out. I take 10 - 12 mins every morning before I do anything - for meditation. Then I
take 1 nite a month - I belong to a "Pamper Group" . A group
of busy ladies who don't usually take time for themselves -
anyone can start a group and it has done wonders for me.
If you are interested - email. me and I will let you know how it works . [email protected]
Hi everyone. Well, we had a beautiful day here, and it looks like it is going to last for at least 7 day - IF you believe the forcast. Around 80 above here. Going from 45 to 80 is tough. Not at all prepared. What we need it rain, and THEN this nice weather. The southern part of Alberta is flooding - had 300 mm of rain in just a few days. Waterton National Park had snow, for heaven sakes. At least they don't have to worry about fires! Where we really need the rain is in the Northern part of the province, as there are a few fires raging away up there.
Serenity - Are you flooding as well? Winnipeg got dumped on, didn't it. Boy, no place is having normal weather - it is either a drought or a flood. That Pamper group sounds interesting.
Meme - It is time for you to stop thinking you CAN'T take time for yourself - life is way to short and you MUST take that time or you will end up sicker. Take yappy happy's advice. Candice renamed me.
Joanne, I don't think the brace will hurt your knee as many of them are made to expand. They do keep heat on the knee however. I don't think it will help a lot, but it might make getting around easier. Worth asking the Dr.
Hi Mima and Ally - hope you gals are feeling good. Ally the weekend is coming and I really think this should be an Ally weekend to read, walk, rest, shop whatever you feel like.
Last edited by Happy Canuk; 06-13-2002 at 07:44 PM.
Mima- I am seriously thinking about seeing a specialist. It takes a while . I have to go through my primary Dr. and get refered. Big pain. I just want a solution for a few months. The brace sounds good . I just don't want to do something that will make it hurt worse.
I have a older electric treadmil. I used to have one that wasn't electric.. What a pain in the behind. I sold it . My son says if he sells his house he will buy me a fancy one. I try to get on it when my leg doesn't hurt too bad and then I can't for a couple days.
Meme -Thanks for the web site. I looked it up and another one. I saw those braces in Walmart. Yes, Take the time for yourself. Leave the house if you have to and go for a drive to the mall or to a friends ,but do it. Go to a park and just walk around. If nothing else walk around your block. Put your mom down for a nap and take one yourself.
Ally. Your incline sounds medium/ high . My daughter walks much more than that at 4.5 miles an hour, But she is 45. and has been at it for years. She also weights less than 100 lbs. She used to do 1 hour on the tread and 1 hour arobics. I was able to do 1 hour+ up to a few months ago at 3-4 miles an hour.I guess those days will have to be on stand by for awhile.
Hello Happy,Candice.Serenity..Bye..Joanne
Joanne....I'm not sure what 4.5 on the incline stands for. You can keep going up but I think I might leave it there. When I had it on no incline I could walk a lot faster, but then when I did the incline I realized that it was forcing me to use more muscles. I can walk a long ways just walking. I try to do no more than 45 minutes at nite or I can't get up when I finally sit down.
Serenity...my cousin who retired at 55 joined a group of women who wear red and purple and go to lunch. golfing etc. They are quite a sight. I think this comes from that poem, "when I am old I will wear purple".
Happy.....here's what I want to do this weekend.... I want to see how far I can walk on our local trail. It goes 17 miles, but I think I can maybe do 7. But if I do that, I have to be prepared to go home and lay down and then not have anything else to do. I don't know why this is a goal. I walk all the time. I guess I wanted to compete in something. My own personal marathon.
Meme......Yes, Time for YOU!!!! Go wear something purple and hit the mall. I got some bargains yesterday. Wore myself out though....
Candice....We will have rain all weekend. I will send you some.
Mima.....WHAT did you say on the phone? You'll be getting lots of calls if you don't watch out. The single life is OK...... I don't have the same hormones getting me all a twitter anymore. In fact, I am PMS right now and glad I have no man in my sight!!
Another cool day in the Northeast.My girlfriend's pool is not heating up!!!!No golf today but next week. I waited all day yesterday for Salvation Army and they called at 2:30 and said they couldn't come so now I have mucho boxes in the living room.Frustrating!My place that I send prescriptions can't find the 6 I sent last week so we had to get new ones from the drs. and get Brad's prescriptions filled. FRUSTRATING!! So when I came home from shoppin g and told Brad how upset I was-he took over supper even though it was hot dogs and beans. How nice is that-I didn't even ask him to. I'm so used to doing everything myself. I love flowers, Candice. those are gorgeous and I know how much work it is from the garden i used to have. Hi everyone else. What did you do for yourself Meme?We are going to ask you every day.I took care of my mother for a week once and..........yikes!!!!I used to run across the street to get away. Oh, that was the time she came to live with me and my drinking husband that she hated. probably because she used to be a drinker.Wow-don't want to go back there!!!!It's amazing what you can survive-now I can live!!!!Bye for now. Mima
Ally- I think your incline will go to 10.. 4.5 meanns that is the half way point ,I think. You know it is more beneficial walking outside than on a tread. You have gravity working against you outside. I read that in a magazine after I lost most of my weight walking on the tread.
Meme- This Fathers day weekend..Get one of your kids to sit for you and take your hubby out.Do it for you!
Candice - Your flowers are the nicest things you can give us. I want to bake some cookies too,I don't because I know I will eat my share.
Mima.. Send some of your rain down here.. I have had some bad luck with pharmacys too. I finally had enough of Walgreens and moved all of the scrips to Walmarts. They are cheaper too. There was a piece in the paper awhile back that stated how all of them are scamming us.
Happy- The weather down here would be perfect for a person who has always lived in a cold climate. Clear blue skys with miles of banked white clouds. But we need the rain. Good beach days though. Hot in the 80-90's. Humid. Now I have given you a weather report. I hope you have a nice weekend.
Serenty.. I hope you are doing well with your eating plan. Don't call it a diet. Diets are temporary. A new way of eating is forever. I still am learning that...
Bye You All...Joanne
Fm really does start in our heads after all. Those Drs. have been right all along
Brain Scan Proves What Sufferers Have Always Known
By Daniel DeNoon
WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Gary Vogin, MD
June 12, 2002 -- People with fibromyalgia (FM) know their pain is real. So do FM experts. And now there's proof that FM patients' extreme sensitivity to pain is no figment of their imaginations.
It's now possible to look at the brain and see exactly where it's active. This is done with a sophisticated brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI. And these studies now are being done on FM patients.
In a study reported in the May issue of the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism, FM experts Richard H. Gracely, PhD, and Daniel J. Clauw, MD, gave fMRI scans to 16 FM patients and 16 healthy people. They did the scans under two conditions: first, when the person was feeling slight pressure on the thumb; and second, when the person was feeling moderately painful pressure on the thumb.
Healthy people's brains only became active when they felt the painful pinch. But the brains of the FM patients became highly active even when there was only slight pressure. This activity was very much like what happens in the brains of healthy people who are feeling pain.
"What it shows is that the brain response is consistent with what the patients report verbally," Gracely tells WebMD. "Being believed is an extremely important issue for these people. Now these physical findings are emerging, it is gratifying for these patients. We doctors aren't surprised because we already knew. But for the patient, it is just a terrible situation to be in. The general public doesn't really realize that pain can be very severe -- and sometimes untreatable -- in a person who does not seem to be injured."
I. John Russell, MD, PhD, is leading similar fMRI studies at University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Russell is director of the university's clinical research center.
"This helps the patient to see that their pain is different from the pain of others and that it is real," Russell tells WebMD. "Also, this gives us a window to look into the brain at the responsiveness to and effect of pain on mood in people with FM."
Russell notes that FM patients aren't just more sensitive to pain. Pain also affects the mood centers of their brains in ways that it doesn't affect healthy people.
Also impressed by the new research is Terence W. Starz, MD, an FM expert at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
"These very, very sophisticated instruments may now help us describe different subsets of FM patients," Starz tells WebMD. "The brain's processing information from the senses is very complex. When one looks at fibromyalgia patients it is becoming increasingly clear that there are variations in the processing of sensory information."
Doctors have been slow to accept FM as a real disease -- but that quickly is changing.
"I've been in the pain field for 27 years," Gracely says. "Twenty years ago, pain medicine was like a poor stepchild. It was not taught in medical school. Today, the number of people in pain research is huge. FM has been a poor stepchild, too. It is like pain research was several years ago."
Gracely, formerly a researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and Clauw, formerly at Georgetown University in Washington, have moved their research to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Just wanted to post the article above. A gal from another site posted it and I thought it was interesting. There may be hope yet! I sat way to much the past two weeks. The one week I was gone on holidays (none of my photos seem to fit. ), and last week I was trying to get over my back pain episode - only it didn't really go away, and yesterday it really started in my neck, upper back, lower back and hips and legs. I am so stiff I can hardly walk. I went to the chiro today, and the good news is that my alignment is still intact, but the muscles have been overused. One affects the other it seems. Anyway, he did a coupe of things, and I feel a little better. He said to give it a couple of days and see how it feels. Here's hoping. I really hate to complain, but gee.
Ally - Are you enjoying your weekend? I sure hope so, because it will do you more good than harm. Just take time for you and relax. I know that is so hard to do, when you have your family, and you work fulltime, but I hope you can.
Candice - those are beautiful flowers. I am trying to put up some pics. from my little trip, but it keeps saying they are to big. I have already resized them so I don't know. Hope you are feeling better.
Joanne - I hope the brace will help you. Pain is such a horrible thing to live with day in and day out - oh well, I guess it is our lot in life
Meme - I hope you are taking time for you, since we haven't heard from you today. Hope your mom is coming along.
Serenity - Do you need a boat? How is your diet going? It is pretty easy to stay on if you keep track.
It is hot here - up in the 80's. This weather is absoulutely crazy. We don't usually get this hot before July and August. Hmm, I wonder what will happen next?
Fibromyalgia #59
Hey There
so now it's yappy Happy!
