What The Beginning Of A Flare Up Feels Like...

Ever wonder what the beginning of a flare up feels like? If so, you're in luck because I'm in the mood to share and happen to be dealing with one.

First I usually start getting fatigued. Fatigue like you've been running around doing errands for 24 hours straight. It eventually gets worse as the time goes on. It gets so bad that you can barely lift your arms and legs. Even typing this is difficult. Extremely difficult. (It became so difficult I had to stop typing and return the next day to finish). Imagine your arms and legs weighing 500 pounds each and try to lift them. Every effort causing you to become more exhausted. If you are lucky enough to get up and move around you feel drunk. And I'm talking the kind of drunk where it's difficult to walk because you feel dizzy and everything's spinning.

Next comes the body aches and pain. For me it feels like every joint in my fingers, hips, knees, and feet have been beaten with a baseball bat. Sometimes more joints are affected. Sometimes it feels like my bones are bruised. The pain starts as a dull ache but then after a couple hours it turns to an intense throbbing pain. Sometimes pain meds help but usually once it gets so bad there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Imagine your legs, hips, feet, and fingers throbbing constantly. There really is no way to describe it as everyone handles pain differently. I ask you to think back to a time you had severe pain- was it a broken bone? A kick to your boys? :) Well times that by 10 and you might be able to understand but probably not.

Next is my favorite- the sweats. (Why can't it be sweets?) This usually comes a couple hours after the fatigue and dull aching pain. My body feels like it's on fire inside and out. I usually run a low grade fever that ranges from 99.2 to 99.6 normally, or I should say since getting sick. This is common for autoimmune disorders. During the beginning of a flare up my temperature is usually higher than the usual. The highest I can recall when checking it was 100.2. I no longer check for a temperature as I am use to this being something that comes along with the disease. You know what's awesome? Laying in bed and sweating for no reason. Wait, I take that back. The most awesome part of this is the nightmares that come with the sweating. Night sweat nightmares I like to call them.

From here it all goes downhill. My flare ups usually last from 1-3 days. I call them my flare ups because my symptoms are 100 times worse than they are normally. These are the days where I do the shuffle walk. And that's assuming I can even get out of bed. My flare ups don't always have these wonderful warning signs. Sometimes I wake up in a flare. Sometimes the flares just hit me. When I first started getting sick this was my warning of what was to come. My body has apparently turned off my tornado warning sign to only work when it wants to:)

Well my friends, don't you feel enlightened now? I'll bet you do.

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." Joseph Campbell