Article from Paper

I was reading another woman's blog today (check out Natalia's CF blog by clicking here) and she posted this article from the Globe and Mail.

The article is about a woman with MS and what it's like to feel tired and be fighting a chronic illness, yet look outwardly healthy. This relates back to CF a lot, since it's hard for people to understand what it's like when us CF'ers get sick or run down with an infection. It's hard for people to grasp it, since on the outside we all seem to look 'healthy'. I was talking last night with a girlfriend about working out at the gym, and how I would now have to bring my oxygen to the gym if I ever wanted to go work out there. I would love to know what people would think if this 'fit' 22 year old girl walked into the gym, strapped on her nose oxygen plugs and started bootin' it on the elliptical or treadmill. I think it'd be funny to peer into their heads and see what they were thinking.

Here is the article about the woman with MS, which pertains I think very well to the way people with cystic fibrosis feel.

"The tiredness is hard to describe. It's not like the fatigue you feel when you have completed your first 10-kilometre race or triathlon. I wouldn't know what that feels like, but I've seen the joy and elation that accompanies the exhaustion runners bring to the finish line and this isn't the same kind of tired. Runners are rewarded with endorphin buzzes and recovery time. In the grip of MS fatigue I am not.

It's also not the kind of tired you get when you've stayed up all night to study for an exam and then aced it. You are still grinning with the accomplishment on the way to giving yourself permission to sleep all day – a worn-out, blissful utopia. I know what that feels like and it's not the same kind of exhaustion. There is no joy or elation, no rewards or accomplishments.

MS fatigue is lonely, depressing and full of guilt. It is being exhausted just thinking about doing dishes, vacuuming or knowing there is another day of work ahead. I have become proficient in the art of negotiating with myself.

When I miss work or a social activity, I obsess over the need to explain myself to people. Other times I play the silent martyr, hoping for compassion and understanding that I am unable to ask for because outwardly I look normal and I'm afraid people will think there's nothing wrong."

Taken from the Globe and Mail Article

Side note....I ate two waffles this morning, gorged in syrup. They were delicious. Goals for the day, de-junk laundry room, get on the treadmill again today, also going to start researching the best kind of elliptical trainers.