Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Eye Has It

Anyone who has fibromyalgia knows that flare-ups become a part of routine life. You may not like it, but there's not a whole helluva lot you can do about it! I'm in the middle of a fairly bad flare-up right now and it has limited my writing/responding to comments on my blog and reading my favorite blogs too.

For the second time in the past year, I'm dealing with a nasty case of blepharitis. This condition concerns the inflammation of my lower left eyelid (it was the eyelid below the other eye last time). I almost look like I have a black eye, though the most prominent color is not black but red. It hurts. It itches. Even worse, it's affecting my vision as the swelling itself has increased to the point that it's impeding my sight line.

In addition to the eyelid issue, I'm also dealing with severe fatigue. Though I've been spending more time asleep than awake lately, I'm having serious problems focusing on anything for any length of time and I'm continually exhausted.

These flare-ups used to really get me down. It's difficult to maintain a positive outlook when everything hurts and you can barely muster the energy to do much of anything. However, owing to my studies in Taoism, I don't tend to allow these periods to depress me as before. I realize that life is about cycles and my cycle includes flare-ups and remissions. So, when I'm feeling really bum as I do now, I simply accept it for what it is and await for the pendulum to swing the other way.

That said, I'm more than ready for my swollen eyelid to recede!

4 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to hear that, I'll be honest I don't know exactly what those ailments are at this moment and I know you have links mentioning them so I'll have to hit them up to learn more. My thoughts are with you.

    On the flip side, maybe this time can be spent in more introspective activities than interactive? Meditation or just plain ole relaxation!

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  2. THE AMERICAN TAOIST CAN RELATE, AT 64 MY PROBLEMS? GET MORE EACH YEAR BUT I TOO EXCEPT THEM AND CONTINUE, I LEARNED A HELFUL HLNTswidge RECENTLY READING ONE OF MARY OLIVERS' POEMS "WILD GEESE"

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  3. You have my sympathy...The worst thing about fibro is that it is an "invisible disease." I'm glad that you trust in the cycle and that "this, too, shall pass.

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  4. MH5,
    It's hard to relax when you're in pain! That said, you're correct about being more introspective. I've noticed that pain tends to spur that side of me into "action".

    Anon,
    It is true for most people (I need to use that qualifier or Crow will have my hide!) that ailments pile up as we age. So, I guess I'm getting good practice!

    Kittent,
    Most of my ailments are of the "invisible" kind. It almost makes me wish I had a club foot or something of that ilk.

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