December 2015 - MS Health Review & Tips - #HealthyThursday

This Thursday I talk about how my MS has been acting in December and share some health and lifestyle tips with you guys. MS being a possible progressive illness, I believe it’s important to have at least a monthly assessment of your condition, so that you are up to date with what’s going on with your life. Let’s get to it!

MS STATUS

Compared to November, I had little to no symptoms. Just some tingling in my arms and “sand” in my right eye. Most of the weirdness this month was due to hormonal issues caused by the delay of the menstrual cycle. The reason of why that happened it’s still unclear to me, as it was the first time to do so in more than a year.

Now, I’ve been injecting Copaxone for almost a year, and on the prospect they mention that glatiramer may cause disturbances of this kind. But I don’t really know if that’s the case here. Will inquire with a specialist when I redo my blood work for this year. Did any of you guys happen to have that while on Copaxone? Let me know in the comments below.

BODY

On a physical level, since December is always a busy, almost hectic time of year, my sleep had to take one for the team and get a little chaotic. I usually sleep 7-8 hours a night, wake up at 7 am and do my morning routine. This month I went to sleep late, woke up at 8 - 9 am-ish, and the inner clock got confused.

How can you tell if that’s happening to you? Simple! You wake up not feeling rested, you’re groggy and tend to be moody, irritable and have a hard time concentrating on your tasks (and I don’t even say how worse your fatigue can be if you add this to it!). Last month I wrote here about fatigue. Hope it helps!

My advice is to try to stick to your routine and schedule, don’t compromise, don’t say that it’s just this time, because with all the things that can stop you from getting a good night’s rest, not sticking to schedule is the easy part. What if you get to bed at say… 11pm and your brain can’t stop rambling (even after you’ve meditated?)? Then what?

So, as I’ve been there, I encourage you to train into sticking to certain bed and wake hours. Set up alarms on your mobile, turn off any screens at least an hour before bed, go get a warm shower when your bedtime alarm goes off. Then try to get as comfy as you can, close your eyes and stand still (adjust as needed and according to your own MS issues).

MIND

Mental clarity is also important to have. Make time to unplugg and get some rest. This was the case for me this December, as I took 3 weeks off from work and just focused on recharging my energy supplies, preparing for the holidays and spending quality time with friends and family.

There’s no reason to force it, especially when you are living with MS. Of course, everyone is different, but try to relax after a hard day, or limit your actions only to the essential tasks that need to be done, get help, plan. Reflect on your year, wins and losses, blessings and missfortunes. Realign with your vision and your purpose. Quiet the mind. Journal. Meditate.

EMOTIONS

On an emotional level, try to find balance between positive and negative feelings. Every emotion is a wave that provokes a certain reaction throughout your body. Aknowledge it and let it go. Stop. Breathe. Be calm: it saves you from burnouts. Don’t blame or backlash at others for your bad mood (like I did! Sorry!). Analyze the reason why you feel the way you do, talk to someone about it or write it down, record your voice, whatever helps and it’s available to your condition.

Last but not least, we all are the result of our daily choices. We can always change things for the better. Just ACT! Moderation and self discipline are key to being successful. One day at a time, we can rebuild our life the way we dreamed it.

This was all for this week’s #HealthyThursday! Thanks for being here!

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Love,

Alexis

How Can You Beat Fatigue While Staying on Schedule?

When you don’t get enough sleep because you pulled an all-nighter it’s called that you are tired. When you end up dragging your thoughts, words and probably your feet out of the morning shower and you are already exhausted although you had a full-night’s sleep it’s called fatigue. As an MS-er you are mostly already familiar with the topic. So, let’s get started!

What Is Fatigue and What Does It Want?

But what IS fatigue? Let’s look at some cold facts. First of all, having fatigue does not make you a lazy person. It can fluctuate from hour to hour or from day to day. It’s that feeling of overwhelming tiredness or feeling of exhaustion you tend to feel even in the early morning.

Do you know the Duracell Bunny featured in the Duracell Batteries commercial? The one that looses energy as he goes around doing certain activities? It’s feeling like you are out of batteries, literally!

The particular stuff about fatigue is that it can come suddenly, take you off-guard and be totally out of proportion to any activity you might be doing.

Fatigue: Shapes and Sizes

This is the case of primary fatigue, also called lassitude. Another subtype is a kind of “short-circuiting fatigue”, meaning that your muscles get confused and stop responding as they should when doing repetitive movements (i.e. walking gets your legs feeling tired, your hand gets tired writing or chopping vegetables, etc).

These is a second type called secondary fatigue, which is the consequence of lack of sleep, heat sensitivity, stress, infections, relapses, low mood, unhealthy diet, lack of pshysical exercise, meds for other symptoms or conditions that you might have.

Beat Fatigue to the Curve!

How can you beat fatigue while staying true to your daily schedule and to-do list? How can you feel less like moving in slow motion and tripping all over the place? It all starts the day before.

You are the key element in managing your fatigue. You are the only one who can ensure the best levels of energy through enough sleep, relaxtion techniques, a regular exercising routine and a healthy diet.

That’s why you should establish a daily routine that will maximize your energy supply and make you use it in the most efficient way possible to your daily context.

• Wake up and go to sleep at the same hours everyday. The body and the brain will start to get used to your rhythm and adjust the internal clock accordingly, making you less tired and prone to waking up feeling groggy. Plus, doing the same things at the same hours gets rid of stress, as you don’t have to think it through everytime you do it.

• Don’t sleep to much. Oversleeping increases fatigue. Keep the bed only for sleeping (an for other pleasurable activities) and do the rest of them in another part of the house. Read on the couch, have some tea on the porch (or again on the couch if you like it so much). The point is to have a fixed place for resting. So, if you want to nap during the day, where do you go? To your bed, that’s right! Then after napping, get up and resume your daily activities.

• Stay physically active. It will considerably improve your sleep. Try to adapt your exercising routine to your level of energy. It is preferable to exercise in the morning, like I myself choose to do, but it depends on how tired you feel Don’t overdo it by pushing to hard. Keep it light and efficient, just enough to get your blood flowing and muscles stretched. It will alow you to reduce stress, impove your mood and help you with weightoss. I personally enjoy yoga, stretching and deep breathing right after I wake up (and after I have a glass of lemon water to clense my body from all those toxins it released during the night).

• Having a poor diet exhausts your body. Your eating habits play an important role in managing fatigue. Eating foods that are high in nutrients will boost your energy levels and nourish your body, making it more resillient and ready to face the daily MS challenges. Having your meals at the same times everyday, keeps your body knowing when it will receive a new recharge and makes it less prone to headaches or tension. Size DOES matter in this case! Large meals make you feel tired afterwards. Try eating frequent, lighter meals. For example, try eating three main meals and two snacks throughout the day (no, I don’t mean Oreos!). And don’t miss that breakfast! It gives you a fabulous kickstart (or a kick in the behind if you skip it!).

• Having your kitchen organized and cool at all times makes it easier for you to cook, eat and enjoy your meals, without the burdain of fatigue lingering by. Choose to cook in bulk / batches, and store the food into the freezer so it will be ready some other day you need it. A personal tip that I can give you is to gather all of your ingredients and utensils in advance and line them on the table in front of you. Even lining them in the order you have to mix them in is helpful. I have been doing this even before I was diagnosed with MS. Try it and tell me how was it.

• Also, try to maintain a healthy weight. It boosts your energy levels sky-high and it will also help with your self-esteem issues. I messed up this part, as I gained weight after receiving my diagnosis after eating a whole lot of junk just to keep my emotions in place. Big fail! Eat healthy and get rid of bottled juices, pizza, chocolate (I know, I’m evil! But I also have a delicious coconut chocolate recipe that I will soon share with you, in a future post). You get it! Eliminate all that your grandma wouldn’t see as food and you’ll start feeling better (plus the scale will drop a few pounds… just sayin’).

• Drink enough water to keep you hydrated and to flush those toxins out! Dehydration causes tiredness and makes you feel slugghish (like I’m feeling right now… let me grab some water!). But careful with the salt intake! You don’t want to become bloated, as that will mke you feel shitty as well. Drink as much as one liter and a half - two liters, but don’t overdo it (you remember those frequent trips to the bathroom, right? That’s what I thought!).

Fatigued All Day, Can’t Sleep at Night?

And what about that insomnia that kicks in right after you get into bed feeling exhausted?! Kick it to the curve by following a sleeping routine.

• Try not getting overtired during the day, rest and mind your energy levels.
• Eat a light meal, and do not drink coffee or any tea that contains caffeine.
• Ditch TV, smartphone, tablet, laptop… you name it. If it has a blueish screen and it’s glowing right before your tired eyes, it’s gotta go. Period!
• Go take a shower and then do some light stretches. It helps you relax and feel at ease. Plus it helps with some of your digestion.
• Make to-do lists for all your tasks for the following day, getting them off your mind when it’s time to go to sleep.
• If sleep won’t come, don’t stay in bed. Focus on something else. Read a book, go take another warm shower, pour yourself a nice cup of herbal tea (no caffeine!) or do some light stretches. Distract your mind from trying to force yourself to sleep. Keep a notebook on your nightstand, as to be able to free your mind of any ideas, concerns or plans that might come up and keep you awake.

This is it, my dears! I hope you’ve enjoy this article and you find it useful in your daily life. I have personally tried most of the techniques presented here and I would love to hear what your experiences are like.

Untill the next article, have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Alexandra

Life With Multiple Sclerosis, A Full Weekend & Preparing To Renovate The House. How To Knock Yourself Out Into Fatigue And Arm Pain

Did you ever had an “I told you!” moment with yourself? Waking up to having a splendid arm pain and some delicious fatigue is all that I could wish for this morning. Especially when I knew this would be happening. So much for wishful thinking! Long title, short story. Read on!

How It All Began

This past weekend had all the ingredients of being a wonderful one. And indeed it was. Finished all my tasks on Friday by the end of working hours, prepared dinner and spent a relaxing evening at home.

Saturday we had a birthday party to go to, at my boyfriend’s parents house. It was an outside barbecue, and they sayed it was going to be one of the hottest days of the month. We had lots of fun, had great conversation and called it a day in the early evening. Came home and rested.

On Sunday, we went shopping for the house renovation up ahead. Went through three stores full of tiles, wood floors and the usual stuff you’ll need. Came back home and called it a day.

Yesterday I planned to put everything from our living room away into boxes, seal them so that we can store them untill we finish renovating. Done deal! Published an article, sorted piles of folders and books and all sorts of things, checked social media, set up the table for dinner and cleaned up.

And then crashed!

I felt so tired that my arms and legs were “buzzing” inside. My body felt a bit wobbly and I could not concentrate properly. My brain was urging me to sit down already, which I did, after taking a quick shower. As I layed in bed, relaxation kicked in and did its job, and my brain could not been any happier!

Feeling a little better, I got up and stretched for a few minutes, did some relaxing yoga moves and took some deep breaths. That sure helped a great deal. My arms and legs felt more relaxed. I could feel the muscles stretch and the sensation was incredible. Imagine being tense and then muscles letting go. Fabulous!

Then we prepared for sleep. Dimmed the lights, made turmeric tea for both of us and regular tea for me, as I needed more relaxation. Meditated for 10-15 minutes, just to calm my mind, brushed teeth, had a shower and finally off to bed.

After an hour or so, a pile of boxes fell down making a very loud noise that woke us both up. Went to fix that and put the boxes back up. Off to bed again, this time for good.

Today Was One Joyfull Morning... Not!

All four days had heat code “yellow”, meaning the temperatures above 33 degrees C. Did I mention we disabled the air conditioner and the only thing keeping me cool was (and still is) a large fan? (We actually bought another one, slightly smaller, but together they do their job well.) Given the heat, the effort and the lack of proper rest, it’s no wonder my brain protested, throwing me a little surprise waking up party this morning!

Arm pain.. well, forearm pain actually and fatigue. Brilliant! What could you ask for more?

Once more I turned to meditation and yoga. Imagine trying to stand still, calm your breath and silence your mind with your arm hurting like you had a knife going through it! But believe it or not, it gradually subsided.

The yoga moves I chose were ones that did not put strain on my forearm. So, no arm balance, inversions or similar stuff for me today! Only strong, grounding poses, and ones that relaxed my arms and getting my blood flowing and muscles relaxing. Felt very good and further calmed my pain.

The Things I Do To Relax

I like mixing praying, silence and meditation into a 15 minute routine that gets me up and running each day. Then I do a 30 minute freestyle yoga routine, finding what feels good for my body that day, and maybe throwing in a few pose practices if I want to do something extra. After that is shower, breakfast and getting to work!

A Few Conclusions

As I’m finishing this article just now, my arm is still hurting, but the pain is under control. Will do a few stretches after lunch and further give some TLC to my body.

Long story short, if you ever feel like you have too much energy in blazing heat, and it’s too good to be true… it probably is!

So, when faced with summer heat, renovations and busy days, spend your energy gradually and try not to overwork it. Slower is better in this case.

Rest, drink plenty of water and stretch. And then relax and sleep well!

Sincerely,

Alexandra

P.S. Did you ever had a similar experience? How is your MS reacting when mixing high temperatures with a full to-do list? Share your answers on Facebook or Twitter. I would love to hear your story!