How do you describe "our type of fatigue" ?

[lynnmarie219]

Jacob Marley's Syndrome, Mommy Cant talk time, the punctured tire analogy....these are all great....and I think we all can relate to most of them!! 

[SassieCat]

I'm sure many of you can't do this, but when I am so dog-gone tired I lay down and let the drain.  I have learned over the years that it seems more stressful to fight the fatigue and giving in to it.  I am by no means a quitter but I think when I let my mind except that my body is tired, I wake up feeling more refreshed. 

Like I said, "I" can do this and I am sure many of you don't have that ability especially if you work or have children.  This isn't the easiest thing to do either.  Just the 'guilty' feeling that go with having to take a nap used to eat me up.  I think accepting my bodies limitations helps in more ways than one. 

Take care, and know that many of us really do understand!

[Bernice]

Sassie,

Sometimes I am able to do this without much thought, but for the most part I will lay for a few minutes thinking I will get up and do whatever, but when my body wants to shut down into a nap I have the most uneasy feeling of trying to resist it to the point it  can be torture! My mind goes to a hundred things I need to do or that I feel so lazy because this ain't a normal thing for someone my age to be lying around at this time of day. So I jump up like I am going to take on the world only to be flatten most of the time, especially if I am exhausted.

I really hate this, the needing to nap thing!! I have finally got myself where I can stay up most days.

[LeoLady]

Arrrggghhh!  All of the above.  Takes 2 plus hours to get to sleep, then awaken several times, then wake up tired after 10 or twelve hours and sore from being in bed.  I've actually collapsed twice - once while fixing dinner and the other time just (trying to) walk from one room to another.  My body just goes limp and down I go.  My sweet husband has done the grocery shopping for the last year - lucky me, he works at Wally World.  As you can see, I have my days and nights mixed up (4:30 a.m.) because if I'm not in bed trying to sleep, I'm zombie woman trying to stay awake.  Now THAT'S fatigue!

[tomsmom]

Wow LeoLady, It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with the collapse issue.  When I get that feeing of "sit down or fall down" I only have a short time to sit on the floor till the exhaustion passes. I'm not dizzy or anything just completely wiped out.  I've had it happen while cooking and while walking up the hall.   

[Sweetgirl]

LeoLady,

I too have Fibro, poss. SJS and am hypothyroid.  I know exactly what you mean, especially the part of about sleep.  You're exhausted but the mind and body will not shut down.  Maybe it's a subconscious thing that if you finally give in to the the exhaustion you may not get up again. 

Anyway, the only help I have gotten with this is generic Ambien.  I tried Ambien brand name and it left me feeling drunk the next day with major brain fog.  Many sleepless nights later I gave Lunesta a try.  It did not give me the hung over feeling, but after a few weeks I was waking up 5 to 7 times a night!  Not good when a months worth with insurance costs 86!!!  I value sleep but not wanting to go broke, I found out that there was a generic form of Ambien.  Hooray!!  This formulation lets me get at least 7 hours of sleep and I don't feel hung over and no brain fog, well, not anymore than usual. LOL  This has saved me $71. a month and I don't feel like I have a shroud of weight and fatigue holding me down.

Might be worth looking into, even if it's for the short term to get some relief.

All good wishes. 

[lynnmarie219]

I posted this topic quite a while ago and it has become pretty long...but I always find it interesting to hear how others describe "our type of fatigue".

Maybe we can start a new thread just like this one to get some input from our newer members...what do you all think?

[Meld256]

Great idea, Lynnmarie.  Go for it! 

[Diane54]

Debilitating.............makes me feel almost bed ridden!

[brook]

I like that story about the spoons. When it hits me, my brain shuts off, I can't talk sensibly and I can't pick up on things others are saying as well as usual. Makes it hard to work. I can't remember things and my head feels like it wants to roll off my shoulders, my neck just can't hold it up anymore. I also ache more in the achey places and muscles aren't coordinated so I might trip and fall more. Sometimes I have to let the wall hold me up as I walk. If I don't rest when I get the signal, then I get sick!

[H2Ocolor]

My fatigue has changed from when I was first diagnosed, before I would feel like someone took the plug out and I could feel the energy running out.  Now it is a year and a half later and I take life in much smaller doses.  My vit. D deficiency has been taken care of and I know my limits.  Now there are sleep issues and I have trouble feeling rested.  I am used to not having much energy and it seems normal now.  My complaint is my family is young, they have energy and are leaving me behind.  How do you ask your family to stay home because you don't have the energy to go?  It isolates you.  H2Ocolor

[katita]

I work full-time.  Some days I wake up and feel like I haven't slept at all.  Off to work I go and can't imagine how I am going to make it through the day.  Once I get home, I hit my recliner and crash.  I get up and eat something for dinner, watch a little TV, go to bed and get up and do it again the next day.  My weekends are spent recouperating so I can do it all again the following week.  There are no reserves for much else.
Sometimes I think about cutting back the number of days I work, but it's like I don't want to admit "defeat".  I was explaining this to my grown daughter the other day and her response was...do you think Venus Williams wanted to withdraw from the US Open?  She is right...  I admit I am stubborn to a fault.

[jmkboyer]

My description is that I feel "like I'm going to fall over and die."  My wall almost always comes at 4 p.m. when I'm on the drive home from picking my kids up at school.  I hold it together in the car so I'm able to ask the kids how school went.  But by the time we get home, and after listening to them fight, I *have* to go lay down.  I'm always feeling so guilty for plugging them into the television/computer/video games but I try to remind myself that they will be served much better by a mom who hasn't fallen over and died.

Great thread, BTW!

MB

[stephL]

Living life with fatigue is like trying to run a race, except in your lane, you have to run through a tank full of neck high water, while the other contestants are running on dry ground. Other times it's like an undertow/riptide along the beach that keeps pulling you off course no matter how hard you fight. It can also be a tsunami, resistance is futile, you must give in, there is no choice. I'm tired now, thank goodness it's bedtime.

[LizPetillo]

Our Fatigue ....

It's just like the Harry Potter dementors ... a black sheeted death figure hovering over you and literally pulling the life out of you ... leaving you there lifeless ....

That's EXACTLY it - IMHO.

We are all being attacked by dementors that we can't see ... but we sure can feel.