Yes for me. I am only willing/able to do one appointment /activity (outside of the house) per day . Also, I try to have a day off between appointments /outside the house activities There are a lot of activities I cannot / will not do anymore.

It is just not worth it for me to have my pain increase any higher than it is, if I can help to prevent it. Plus, the fatigue issues. Plus , I have 4 lumbar sacral issues.

Activities/chores around the house I pace and space out. Over the years I have learned to do that fairly well. Knowing your limits and respecting them for me came with acceptance.

Now, do I occasionally over do it around the house on a half way decent fibro day? GUILTY

Anyhow, this is my experience. There are a lot of fibro folks that can tolerate a lot more than me and yay for them and I mean that sincerely not rudely. I wish I could still work , but I am grateful to receive disabilty.

You are not alone

Yes yes yes! And the problem is, since i no longer drive, i need to do more than one appointment per day to get to where i need and with my health i see at least one dr a week, have 2 physical thearpy a week, have DBT group therapy and do grocery shopping at least once a week plus once a week i have to meet with the peer support leader at mental health, plus pastor i meet with weekly and i have therapy once a week. Mondays are group and peer support and i do lunch after, DBT group is two dang hours long, i take pain meds before hand! Tuesday i have nothing so i will have to recover, weds i have 2 appointments, thrusday i am suppose to meet with pastor but its payday so i know friday after 2 appointments i will need to shop so thursday staying home i SO get it!

I never plan to leave the house 2 days in a row and I rarely leave the house more than once a week just because I know even going out for an hour is going to be enough to do me in for at least a day if not more. I had to stop working too; I wish I still could but that daily grind just became far too much for me to handle and my health would be even worse if I were still trying... Thankfully I have disability as well (although I'm in the middle of a review of my case right now and really worried they're going to cut me off since I had to go through the appeals process to get it in the first place. The added stress has shot my pain through the roof along with everything else.)

I've lost friends and have family who won't speak to me anymore because I've missed events because I do not attend anything anymore since I know it will cause me greater pain and fatigue and the whole nine and it's just not worth it to me to hurt more just because someone invited me to their wedding but won't notice if I were there anyhow. But when you know leaving your house to run one quick errand will leave you in agony then you know bigger events will decimate you. Other people never understand unless they live with you and see it every day (and even then they don't always understand). I still say the worst thing about this illness isn't the pain, fatigue, or any other symptom - it's the fact that we constantly have to explain ourselves and what we go through and still have people not believe us.

MiLily, Angelo Jo and TES9579,

I want to thank each of you for answering my question and sharing you daily, weekly, monthly life.
It is sad that this is the life we are living and sometimes it gets depressing !
Your sharing with me helped me feel understood and not alone in the struggle.

Blessings to you all and I wish for you less pain and more energy ! :) PJ

This is why pacing is so important. I don't do anything major back to back or schedule two things in a day. It always proves to be too much. All of my appointments/activities are deliberately spread out. Take care.

I have had fibro longer than I can remember. Even as a teen I had to pace myself. If I did much on one day I have to have at least one day of rest. There are times that even doing small chores can set me spinning out of control. All I can do is do when I can and rest when my body is intent on attacking me.