Deep inside each and every person with an invisible illness a storm is always on the horizon. Some days it's a sprinkling of rain mixed with sunshine and other days it's a full blown tsunami.
When the storm rages the wind howls and rattles the walls from within and before you know it the rain is pouring down all while your inner being stares out the window of your soul and wonders where the heck the storm just came from.
It seems like lately that more and more often the storms are of the latter variety. By the time the storm disperses I am in a tangled mess of nerves,pain, exhaustion, and frustration. Occasionally brain fog moves in about the same time and if that happens then you can add delirium to the other symptoms.
For someone who has never experienced fibromyalgia I probably sound like a full blown drama queen, but for those who have experienced it I can see you nodding your head in agreement. Maybe even hearing you saying: "But, you forgot to mention X, Y, and Z too." Truth is, I didn't forget it's just that as all individuals with an invisible illness are well aware of not everyone suffers from the same symptoms, and even the same individual may not have the same symptoms after two storms that appeared for the most part at least on the outside to be identical.
The frustration of a storm is not just with what happens at the end but also what leads up to that point. Some of the more prominent triggers are: Stress, overexerting oneself, overheating, poor diet, inadequate exercise, little or no sleep. and side effects from medications that the FDA still consider to be in the "safe" zone.
I also know for me that if I eat something that has certain things in it like the red dye in bacon bits my body is going to have a raging storm within an hour after the first bite. This is why it is important to start a journal and record what you eat, when you eat it it, and how you felt for up to three days after eating it, and then reading labels to avoid those foods that create a storm inside of you.
This will not keep all of your storms at bay as there will always be the unpredictability factor, and an ingredient in a food you ate that you were unable to determine what caused it.
The main point in all this is take care of you and be your own best advocate. If we all can accomplish that maybe we can spearhead studies on funding research for better drugs or even better yet a cure.
Until next time God bless,
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