I just had an odd thought today. I was coming into work after having been off for a few days due to a bad flare. One of my coworkers came by my desk and asked how I was feeling. Even though I am still having a lot of pain, I told him that I was fine. It was then that it occurred to me that what we as fibromites define a good day quite differently than other people. I have now come to think of a "good day" as when I am at a 50% or less pain level since there never seems to be a day when I am not in some degree of pain. I can muster a smile and be pleasant with others at 50% even though I have moments where I grimace because of the pain or have to rest because of the exhaustion.

At about 70% I work from home. A coworker told me she could not understand the difference between me sitting at my computer at home and sitting at my desk at work. I tried to explain to her that at home I am in comfortable sweats, in a comfortable chair, in a heated room with a bathroom only a few feet away. Where I work, the Ladies room is on an entirely different floor! So by working from home I save myself the effort and energy of getting dressed, putting on makeup, driving a half hour to work, being achy because the office is cold and having to walk the equivalent of half a block each time I have to go to the bathroom.

At 80% I take a sick day. On those days, the pain and the fatigue are just too great for me to work even from home. Mostly my 80% days are more like rollercoasters where I dip down to 70% but then sometimes go up to 90% where I literally just start crying because it hurts so bad. So if the pain dips down, I usually get on the computer and do some work for the office. I just do it for free. I don't really mind doing that though since my company has been so understanding with me. It's a win-win scenario.

Anyway, I really wrote all of this to say that I bet most of us define a good day by how low the pain level is. We don't get pain-free days like other people. When people ask us how we are feeling and we say, "Fine," we generally mean that we don't hurt enough at that moment to ball our eyes out. I would also bet that many of us have learned to "put on a happy face" even when we are doing poorly. I now define my life in two eras: Pre-fibro and Post-fibro. And my new normal is totally different now than it used to be.