Tag Archives: chronic pain

(Body) Love is Patient. (Body) Love is Kind.

As I thought further about my recent post about marrying my body, I wondered what is really the hard part of this for me? What about the commitment to love my body do I find the most challenging. And I remember that passage from the bible that is so often read during wedding services. You know, the one that begins, “Love is patient. Love is kind.” And it occurred to me that right now, I’m doing okay with the kindness part of living in my body. But the patient part, not so much.

It is so hard being patient with our bodies. Especially when we are hurt or sick. I have definitely been losing patience with my current illness. And so one day, I thought I would just muscle through. I would just do the stuff I did when I wasn’t sick. I would suck it up and power through. I did all of that. And I paid for it. Oh dear God I paid for it, with interest. After two days of barely being able to move again, I thought maybe a different approach was in order. Maybe I should, you know, do the stuff I tell other people to do all the time. Maybe I should figure out the gentlest and most gradual way possible to go forward and do that.

Except I suck at patience. I mean I really, REALLY suck at it. I want to be better TODAY. I want to be able to plow through and using will power alone be perfectly healthy right now. The idea that I am still in pain and struggling at this point is INCONCEIVABLE!

But I am. Why is it that I can have so much patience for helping other people with their struggles and helping them find a gentle and loving and gradual way through and be so utterly bad at it myself? This is not my first rodeo. I’ve dealt with chronic pain before. I should be better at it by now.

Except it is really, really hard. I am so very glad that we have our RASCAL challenge starting on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to picking just one or two kind things I can do for myself each day to feel better. I am looking forward to making kindness and self-care my agenda and my to do list for a while. And I am blessed beyond blessed to have a loving family and all of you great people to help me get there.

So even though I’m happily married to my body, I’m willing to admit that we are going through a bit of a rough patch. We’re working through our troubles. I just try to continually remind myself body love is patient, body love is kind.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

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Back

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Well I’m back here telling you that the pain in my back is, well, back. Last week after I gave my speech at the Duarte Health Fair, I took a little nap and woke up in pain. Like whoooooaaaa pain. I went out for my birthday dinner. Had a little pizza and went to bed. When I woke up, in the middle of the night I found I could barely walk. I took some aspirin and cried and tried and tried to get comfortable. After a long while, I found I could manage if I lay on my back with a pillow under my knees. And until yesterday, that was about all I could do. Whenever I moved from that spot, I was in agony. Yesterday, I finally progressed to the point where I could sit upright so now I can write my blog. And there was much rejoicing (yayyyy).

Why am I inviting you to this pity party? I’m not really sure. I do want to make it clear that I am not some kind of persona, but rather a person. That means I get injured, I get sick, I get frustrated and I get discouraged sometimes, just like you. And I do want to do a shout out to all of you who are in chronic pain. This week, I had a teeny, tiny, appetizer, snack-sized reminder bite of what that is like and I have decreed, “It sucks.” In the short space of a week, I’ve had to cancel many appointments and have a discussion with my husband that I wasn’t really able to do much to help him as I had to rest for half an hour after the giant effort of washing my hair. I haven’t styled my hair for a week. I can just about manage to stay clean. I’ve had to call everybody to cancel my class–three times. I had to explain to my doctor that while I was very clear that it would be better for me to get out of my bed and keep moving, I might use my laser-eyes power to kill him where he stood (if I had laser-eyes destruction capabilities). I stood in Target, waiting for my prescription for pain killers to be filled, shifting from foot to foot, and hating the fact that I was asking them, please for the love of God, please hurry. And this is just a teeny taste. This is only one week.

I have been reminded yet again of all the people I know, all the students and family and friends who are suffering from chronic pain. Friends that have been enduring for years and have no idea if or when their pain will ever end. I have endured chronic pain for spurts throughout my life. And it sucked. And it crushed me in my tracks and humbled me. But I have enjoyed the privilege of not being in pain most of my life. I honestly feel such respect for those who manage to endure month and year after year often while maintaining work, family, friendships, and maintaining the ability to think and to feel and even to laugh. I give you mad props. And the next time I ask a student in chronic pain to keep moving, that it will help them, I will give a silent prayer of gratitude that nobody really has killer, laser beam eyes. Right? Well unless you are a cat that is:

Love,

Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

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The Right Now Show Episode 006: Exercise and Chronic Pain

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In Episode 6 of the Right Now Show, we address a viewer inquiry about exercising with chronic pain or disability. We discuss strategies for exercising with osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and other sources of chronic pain, discuss the traffic light method for rating pain conditions and discuss techniques for getting the most out of your workouts.

Here are some other important resources for exercising with chronic pain:

This week I’m offering a special FREE BONUS VIDEO with additional information on exercising with chronic pain.

Here’s an extended (1 hr.) interview with me and Pain Specialist Dr. Paul Christo talking about coping with plus-sized exercise and chronic pain:

Here are some studies about the effects of exercise on chronic pain:

And here’s an extremely informative article about chronic pain and exercise technique: