Hello

[SBee]

Hi Fiona ( and your dog!)
I agree with others, dogs are a huge motivation to get outside and are such beautiful creatures to have in our lives.
I also have a friend with fibromyalgia who manages and extremely active life. I guess they have worked out a drug regime that works for them?
I am understanding it affects us all in so many ways,and days ( even hours) can alter as to how we feel. I am trying my hardest not to compare myself with others because of this reason, I think we have to work out , with trial and error, what things work best for us as individuals.
The cleaner diet is a big thing you are achieving. To help fill your freezer can I suggest homemade soups? Perfect in our UK weather and can be packed with nutrients. Also, sometimes we may not feel we are able to use energy to cook a big meal, so would can help and is quite easy to digest. Good way to use up any leftovers too.

 

[JayCS]

My male GP said get up and go for a walk when it happens typical man who doesn't believe fibromyalgia exists.

Now that's an interesting new thought, that female docs might be more understanding... Does seem possible...
A male rheum didn't diagnose me, I didn't "appear" like someone with fibro, 3 months later my female rheum did.
So does that make her more understanding? Well she gave me a pain med and a 2nd time said it's no big problem to live with it... However of 50+ docs in 1 year I never met a doc that didn't believe fibro exists. Two (a male sleep lab psychiatrist and a female neurologist in a centre for rare diseases) called it "trash can" or similar, but both were very helpful for many reasons, he excluded lots of things, she suggested a few things, both gave me a few pointers.
This however may be mainly cos of me being male, or maybe the prejudice (which was definitely here in the 90s) having decreased quicker here in Germany.

My problem that I would love to know the answer to is how the hell can I control the fatigue. Some days its just tiredness and half an hour nap can make me feel better, if I fight the tiredness then I go so cloudy headed, my eyesight goes sort of blurry but fuzzy. Other days when it's severe tiredness I can lose all strength in my body, I stop completely if I'm outside, I feel really heavy and can't function at all. My male GP said get up and go for a walk when it happens

Brilliant how you've distinguished different aspects of your fatigue: tiredness, loss of strength, heaviness.

And personally I see "cloudy headed" (probably part of brain / fibro fog) as one type of mental fatigue.
And accordingly eyesight going blurry / fuzzy similar. That's actually one I'd missed so far in my list of 17 fatigue types, that'd bring it up to 18... - thank ye...!
You have them connected to tiredness, but many of us have them independently of it.
Also interesting how we sense tiredness.

One type of control of it you've already found - napping does seem to help you, if it's not too severe and more a tiredness type of fatigue. Another way to control that type might be to focus on getting more restorative sleep - lots of supps, sleep hygiene and circadian rhythm stuff to try for that, ancient as well as cutting edge. Me, I needed to nap in my first year when I got a feverish feeling that reminded me of staying up too late pre-fibro. First I thought I needed a cold shower which did stop the feverish feeling and reduce the tiredness, until I realized that it's tiredness and fighting it isn't good, napping instead, even from 4 to 6pm sometimes. But improving my night sleep made it unnecessary.

Strangely, losing all my strength and feeling really heavy are 2 independent fatigue symptoms for me. They often come together, but I can have energy and feel heavy at the same time, as if on accelerator and brakes at the same time. And I can feel nimble, but don't have energy to use it. This is more since using LD N, but before that too. But altho it's weird and contradictory I do like having one without the other, cos it gives me hope that I can tackle or recover from the other part better than if it were one big mess, and that hope is justified by experiencing quicker recovery and generally being able to do more with just one or the other.

Yeah, GP saying get up and go for a walk if we haven't got strength is of course a futile attempt at just saying "something" altho he's completely out of his depth. I have sometimes experience such clueless advisors being capable of learning, but often it's not worth our time to wait, unless we're dependent on them, then we have no choice but to educate...
The obvious contradiction in terms reminds me of a trainee alternative health practitioner when talking about my social phobia ages ago, suggesting to just go out with mates to a pub and relax.