I love Christmas time. I mean when else can you paint your toenails alternating green and red and people smile about your Christmas spirit instead of trying to back away from the crazy lady??!
But surviving Christmas when you have a chronic illness is another challenge entirely. My knight in tarnished armour and I are lucky enough that most of both our families live in the same city as us. We also are lucky that my family comes from Viking stock. Which means that we have always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve (don’t ask me how that works with Santa, because I don’t know!) This means we have never had an argument about where to spend Christmas. We celebrate with my family Christmas Eve, and with the knight’s family Christmas Day.
But in that also lies a problem. If I do an evening function, even if it is a short one, it uses more energy than a longer one would during the day. So if I have an evening function, I absolutely have to allow for doing nothing the following day to avoid a flare. So that makes it very hard to do two functions, even over two days. This Christmas just past, I managed to make it work. I had my whole wonderful family at my house for Christmas Eve lunch. Then my knight’s wonderful family for Christmas Day lunch.
I didn’t have to go anywhere, no travel, no stressing about packing food, supplements, medications. I knew my own bed was just on the other side of a door. I had a lie down just before everyone turned up and again while everyone cleaned up. My in-laws stayed and we played games all afternoon – which is one of mine and my knight’s favourite things to do. And both nights I was in bed at my regular time.
So while I managed the FibroTroll very successfully for our Christmas celebrations. I didn’t go so well after that.
I decided to hit the post-Christmas sales. And while I got some great bargains, it used up more energy than I really had. Then it was my birthday, so I splurged a little and had a glass of wine and a creamy cheesy seafood marinara. I made it into a GAPS friendly version with zucchini spirals instead of pasta, but I may have gone a little overboard with the parmesan. Lastly, it was New Years Eve. The knight and I sat in the air-conditioning, eating peanut butter ice-cream (GAPS friendly again) and watching Dr Who(I know, awesome, right?!). But at 10:30pm the Troll decided there was no way I was seeing in the new year, so I went to bed.
All of that proved to be a bit too much and the FibroTroll invited his best mate the Migraine over. So I’ve been a bit flat for a few days, and only now am I on the upswing.
On the plus side, I found an app for my android phone called Migraine Buddy. It helps you to track your migraines and potential triggers. I have only had it for 2 days, so I will have to let you know how it goes.
