Good Morning Judith, I hope you had a good sleep. It is so nice of you to lend me some help figuring how to make a good life with this new health situation. I live in Northern Virginia, about 45 minutes away from DC in a city called Centreville. When I first moved here in 1995, it was a farm community. My townhouse was one of the first ones built here. The highway was a dirt road and there was corn, horses and cows everywhere. Then with the housing boom, all that went away, and now my city is wall to wall houses, and a bedroom community of DC. Very busy, dense population, lots of traffic. I live in a quiet part of the community and it has its own little slice of heaven, about a two mile dirt path along a beautiful stream with small waterfalls. BSC lives close to me too. He is in Reston. I am supposed to meet up with him as soon as I get a little better.
I hope you are enjoying your week and feel okay today. Never know what to expect when you wake up, each day is different. I guess one has to be super flexible with fibromyalgia and go with the flow of it instead of fighting. Take care and thank you for being my friend.

Hi Judith, I read your post on fibromyalgia. I had surgery recently and had to go to a pain doctor. In addition to treating my pain from surgery she also diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. I am in my late fifties. All my life I have always been hurting and very tired and had a fussy digestive system. I made it through the school years struggling, especially in the morning, but I did everything normal people did, I just always hurt and slept a lot.
After college I discovered working out, and especially running and I got pretty good at it and joined the military. I did fine performance wise but I was always super sore even after working out many years I did not recover or get used to exercising, just always hurt. Because I was young I just learned to live with it. Then soon after I turned 50 things changed. All my life I told the doctors and they diagnosed me with myalgia, but never fibromyalgia. Now I have that diagnosis and I hurt all the time.
I would like to know what to do. I was given medication, Tramadol and Neurontin. I quit the Neurontin right away because my ears were ringing. Everything hurts, my muscles even get sore when I sleep, and I pull muscles every day. Stretching helps but then it hurts later in the day. I can't walk for exercise because I have a lot of damage to my spine, stenosis, scoliosis, ruptured disks. When I walk a few days in a row my lower back goes into spasms and I can't get up out of bed. I feel good during walking but after it really hurts.
I would like to know what you do to deal with fibromyalgia. I have seen special diets and I don't know if they help. I don't know which supplements might help, or if exercise is good.
I used to be very social a year ago, but like you said I am withdrawing now. I can't keep up with my friends. They are so active and motivated and  I can't hide my pain. Even at a bowling party I was so miserable. and then my hands hurt for days from that ball. I don't know what to do. Hot water helps. Does it come and go? It is a lot worse now since the surgery. I have been given a prescription for physical therapy. The last time I went they put something on my hips to pull them, like traction, and when I got home that night I was so hurt I couldn't walk for a few days. I am not working now, but I want to work. I hope if you are hurting worse than usual that you feel better soon. Lots.

oops Judith, you may be thinking of Robyn, I'm not anywhere near Santa Cruz, although I'd like to be on occasion. We're in northern-most New Jersey. anyway, that tea sound so soothing. thanks for stopping by my page!

Judith, what can I say except I love you so. I'm not so good with words, as so many are here, but I do treasure our friendship here.

Thanks so much for connecting. I do enjoy your thoughtful posts.

Judith, you are a great spirit ;) Thank you for being here, for being my friend, and for posting your wisdom :)

Oh Judith. I knew you were going through health issues with your Mom but I had such a case of "ingrown eyeballs" that I couldn't see the pain and sorrow others were going through. It makes me ashamed of myself and I am crying. Not just for me, but for you and your family and your pain. I should have been a better friend to not only you, but to a whole passle of friends on this site. I cry for the lost past and for the future. I cry because I feel totally inadequate to handle the job.

This proves it. Have you noticed just how many "I"s there in the previous paragraph? Yup! A definite case of ingrown eyeballs .... focused on the "I" in this message.

Forgive me, dearie, for not being much of a support when you needed it. But I have noticed you were there for me throughout this time.

Love,
Lois

So sorry it took so long for me to respond. I am almost 60yo which is close to your age. I do Zumba and Hip-hop and take a Ballet Fusion class. I love Hip-hop the most, I think. I noticed your 4.9 A1c. My most recent A1c is 4.9, too.