Challenge Yourself & Your CRPS

Today is a good day! Any day that I can manage the pain so that I'm not letting it control me is a good day. The last couple of weeks I've been having some real flare ups in my pain levels. Today is the first time in a while where I have woken up and felt like things are under control. I'm still in pain however things are under control.

It feels good for a change to be able to get out of bed and not have to feel like I've been run over by a mac truck!! Just the fact that I have a smile on my face today and can laugh with my kids lifts my spirits. I'm looking forward to having a good day today without being eaten alive by pain. It's all about taking advantage of today while I feel good. It might mean doing something as simple as going out for coffee with a friend, but it gives me a sense of freedom that I have lost in a lot of ways. I might even do some reading because my head feels relatively clear. It's about challenging myself to do things that I haven't been able to do for a while because the pain has been too bad.

These things might seem like every day things to most people however they aren't to me. Being challenged in the simplest of ways like reading a book or going out for coffee may not seem to be a big deal to some, however to those of us that suffer from CRPS we known that it is. When you are able to do simple things like these, then it's like you've taken a piece of your life back. It gives you back your independence that a lot of people lose when you become so dependant on others.

On good days one of the biggest changes that I can see is within my kids It's almost as if I can hear them saying to me "Dad's back" we can play with him now!!! It's hard to have a normal relationship with my kids because of my condition. Lots of the things that kids do naturally like yelling and screaming have an effect on my CRPS, which in turn makes things worse for me. Quite often the added stress will cause my pain to increase. So when my pain isn't bad they get to be around a happier Dad. This only motivates me more to get better so that I can spend even more time with them laughing with them rather than being in pain and uncomfortable.

When you spend so much time in pain and not being able to do the things that you were once able to do it can be really difficult to stay active and positive, but the alternative is to become depressed and withdraw from people. The more active I can be, the more positive I'm going to be. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't as easy as it looks! I like to think of it like "The Little Engine That Could". He kept saying to himself "I think I can" "I think I can" until he got to the top of the mountain.

So the next time your feeling like your pain has eased and your having a good day, challenge yourself to do something that you haven't done in a while. It might encourage you or motivate you to try harder in your efforts to overcome CRPS.