Two days ago I had a struggle with sleeping the night before. This happens sometimes with my fibromyalgia. I have intermittent sleep so even though I got six hours it felt more like four. I can go a few days without getting seven hours. I decided when I have my bad days due to fibromyalgia or ICC flares, I have to keep moving.

Fortunately I have children who need my time. It isn’t an option to “take a day off“ from my responsibilities. Helping them takes my mind off my pain for a time. I give myself permission to have a bad day and then make it a good day. How do I do that? I keep moving. My fibromyalgia was bad due to my lack of sleep. Getting back into shape also requires pain. My muscles felt like they were on fire two days ago. It was a hard day. But I keep going.

Then my interstitial cystitis flared up for no reason yesterday. I hadn’t eaten to make it flare. Super frustrating. Its OK to have bad days because they will come. It’s what you do with those days that matters.

Did I give myself permission to flop on the couch last night for two hours watching Netflix? Absolutely! Did I find an excuse to sit down for 30 minutes in between taking kids to and from activities so that I could write some lyrics to a song ? Absolutely! Did I take a long shower with hot water to ease pain in my muscles? You better believe I did! I took Lunesta (prescription of course) to sleep. It helps me sleep six hours. Then I add an antidepressant call trazodone which gets me 7-8 hours total.

I’m not condoning medicating. But I know myself. If I don’t take medication at night, I wake up every two hours. It’s like having a newborn, without the benefit of a baby. No point waking up every two hours. Therefore. I medicate.