The Side Effects of Celebrating Christmas With Chronic Pain

So today is Boxing Day. Many people up and down the country will be getting up early and heading to the sales. Not me though. I woke up at 10 a.m. and put pineapple juice in my milk frother. That’s right, pineapple juice!

• What is Fibromyalgia?
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Christmas is my favorite time of year and I love it so much. But along with the excitement comes the pain, the fibro fog and the inability to do very much at all due to my fibromyalgia. It’s only myself and my two children at Christmas and this year my daughter had to work.

So this was my Christmas Day. I woke up at 8 a.m. and we opened presents. I then had to get ready and walk to my daughter’s place of work so her brother and I could see her for a little bit. We then walked home, about 20 minutes each way. I did a bit of lunch and prepped dinner, spent time with my son and then came the mammoth task of actually cooking and dishing up.

My daughter didn’t get home until 7 p.m. Dinner was ready at 7:30, my daughter fell asleep and my son couldn’t eat as he had a sore throat. I was unable to eat all mine as I was exhausted. Dinner was a washout. I filled the dishwasher, tidied up and went to bed at 10 p.m.

Today, I’m in agony, my whole body hurts, every joint, every muscle. My skin is on fire to touch and I’m barely able to get about. My fibro fog is awful (hence the pineapple juice in the milk frother) and somehow I still have to look after my son and feed my children. At the moment, it looks as though I will be spending most of the day in bed. As I’m writing this I’ve realized an hour and a bit has passed as I’m having to search my brain for the right words.

I pace myself as often as I can but being a single parent with no family doesn’t make life easy! Especially at holidays. But I do it because there is no one else to do it if I don’t. So yes, I love the Christmas holidays; however, I do not love the side effects my chronic illness presents.

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Photo via KatarzynaBialasiewicz on Getty Images