@tigreyes2004 Thanks Genie, I'm wishing you the best also. I'm glad you're here on Connect for support.

You are a girl after my own heart! I too love to decorate the house for holidays or just rearrange a few things to keep it fresh. Those little things keep us active and distracted and are SO important. It's awful to have to live with chronic conditions and come to terms with the fact that it's not going to go away and our best ammo is symptom and stress management.

I understand, acceptance of my condition was hard to come by also. I'm happy to hear you are meeting with your mental health doctor Monday. Treating the whole body is important. Learning how to achieve emotional and behavior stability, and develop a plan of action for when you aren't feeling so stable on those difficult days, helps. Has your mental health doctor been working on helping you deal with grief and loss?

Do you remind yourself, as exhausting as it may be, that you have survived 100% of your bad days prior and you will get through another day. Sometimes focusing on pulling in the view finder and getting through the next 5 minutes or hour of a day helps reign it in. Doing that can be an accomplishment in itself.

Just like a rain storm...the sun eventually shines again and we do have better days. Focus on those better days and small wins of finding joy and being proud of yourself for hard you work everyday. Speaking of small wins, I'm impressed that you do not take an opiate. Regardless of why, that is a big win in my book! You are better off for it. Be proud.

Darn straight, we all notice pain more when we get bored and have no "brain vacation", as I like to call it. You sound like you are doing a great job of trying to keep busy in your house, with family, etc... Sometimes though our need for staying busy leads to pushing and crashing which stirs up symptoms and sets us back both physically and mentally.

Please try to not get down on yourself. Give yourself grace when you get frustrated with not being able to finish a task. Remind yourself that you did get some of it done, and the rest will have to wait until you rest, or for another day. I had to work on not being a perfectionist and allowing myself to say 'good enough is good enough". Also, flexibility to break up tasks, schedule in rest breaks and have a more realistic approach and expectation of goals is a great help. Have you ever tried to schedule out your day with moderation of activities versus having the "to do list"? Do you think that might help?

Are the pins and needles constantly going on? I’m trying Gapentin and Cymbaltabut nothing see to help. Constant pain.