Cars, Needles and Tense Muscles

I had a big afternoon yesterday!

Photo (c) Doug Quine Photography, November 2011
Photo (c) Doug Quine Photography, November 2011

I drove myself to my acupuncture appointment! My mum came with me and drove me home, but I made it there by myself 😀

This is a big deal because, as you know, I haven’t really been doing much driving the last 6 months.

Why did I feel comfortable driving myself there?

I got new lenses for my glasses and now the double vision doesn’t happen unless I’m extremely fatigued. Yay!!! 🙂

(You can probably tell I’m a bit excited about this)

It’s great because it gives me just that little bit more freedom. I can now drive myself places that are not too far away (say 5 – 10 minutes from my house) and feel comfortable I can drive myself home, and I can share the driving with E when we go out further as long as I’m not already fatigued.

I don’t think I can drive too far at this stage because the muscle pain and the extreme fatigue (mental and physical) still happens quite quickly. Even within the 20 minute drive to the acupuncturist it got to a point where I was saying to mum I’m struggling to focus and the pain is getting bad. BUT I MADE IT! 🙂

Sorry I’m just a little excited and the PEM (Post Exertional Malaise) is just setting in so the fog is closing in and I’m pretty sure I’m just rambling here.

I’ve been seeing the acupuncturist for the last 5 weeks to see if he can help with the pain and fatigue. He also does Bowen Therapy for me to release the muscles and align my joints/bones correctly. So far I feel like the pain is reducing; my baseline pain level is now a 3-4 out of 10 instead of the 6-7 out of 10 I was constantly at before I began. Obviously the pain still increases when I do too much, and I still have days where the baseline is higher, but overall I believe the pain has reduced. There has been no change yet in my fatigue levels or to the brain fog and confusion.

I will keep you updated on how it goes though 🙂

Ok, now I’m really starting to ramble, and I’m feeling very out of it, so I think I’m going to sign off here.

Apologies for such a rambling post!!

Have you tried any alternative treatments?

What has and hasn’t worked for you?