Friday 4 October 2013

Sore and Tired

I hurt this morning. My arms are stiff and my legs are stiff, my muscles are responding slowly. I am tired. I stayed up past midnight last night and this morning I am paying the price for this exuberance. On Thursday evenings I like to go to "Name That Tune" and it usually goes until almost 11:00 PM. It may be getting to be too much for me. We'll have to wait and see.

It is a reality of having ALS that my world gets smaller on a persistent basis. Each and every day something goes, something happens, something changes. It may not seem like much, and certainly doesn't appear to be an issue if you look at it from a healthy point of view, but my point of view is somewhat different. When I notice that extra bit of difficulty in putting on a sock or pulling up my pants, it's not like that difficulty is passing. While it varies, once I see something I know it will be back soon, and when it comes back, it will be here to stay.

Mornings are always tough for me, so maybe this is just another morning. The soreness in my muscles might mean I am coming down with something. Perhaps I worked them too hard yesterday and staying up late only made things worse. All of these things seem plausible and reasonable, except that with me, once I get tired I stay tired. I don't recover all that quickly.

There are some things that help me, some things that make recovery easier. Nothing beats a good night's rest. Nothing is better than to get enough sleep so I can face the day. So this morning I still got up at 9:00 AM, even though I was still very tired.

Why? Because Rosa, my housekeeper, was coming in at 9:00 AM and I wanted to be up before she got here. Unlike Ricky, I cannot sleep through her visit. He seems to be able to sleep through anything, but then again Rosa makes my bed for me on Fridays and that is a real treat to me, something I don't have to do.

So as with all things, this part of my life is a trade off. It looks like I might have to take a nap this afternoon.

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