Ow, or this is life with a chronic illness

See that title?  That’s pretty much the order of the day.

Yesterday, I was feeling okay – I’d woken up with the beginnings of a migraine, but had managed to stave off the worst of the pain with my usual ritual of codeine and caffeine.

I did some housework, chased around after the kid as per usual.  Which is a whole lot of chasing summarised into one sentence   Managed a decent writing session – 1500 words – and got a good chunk of reading of Power and Majesty.

The kid woke up and I bundled him into the pram as usual for a walk.  This is where things started to go pear-shaped.  Straight away, I could feel the difference in my body.  Instead of warming up and loosening, my muscles were immediately tight.  By the time I’d walked for about ten minutes, my legs were cramping up painfully.  Stupidly, I persisted, hoping that once my muscles warmed up, they would relax.

No such luck.   I gritted my teeth and got through the rest of the day (with the help of some painkillers), and was very happy to fall into bed.

Of course, as life always has a sense of humour, the kid had a bad night (thanks to a blocked nose), so I was up a bit.  The muscles continued to cramp and be painful, and my back and hips joined in.  To the point where I was dreaming about the pain.

So, painkillers again this morning and I’ve started a steroid taper.  Hopefully it’ll sort this all out soon, otherwise I’m going to be less than useless for a while.

Normally, this is the kind of thing I’d be posting at LJ/DW under flock.  I always had the idea that I’d hide away all of my medical issues, in case it negatively affected my career at some stage.  But you know what?  This is my reality, and I manage to write despite it (with a lot of help and support, mind).  I refuse to hide it.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.