In order to try to maximize my time spent with my family when I got to the US, I spent almost all of my time before I left working on my studies, so my exercise program took a back seat. Then I was in the US for three weeks and couldn't do my bike and all of my time was spent with family or doing the uni stuff that I needed to do, so I didn't do any physio exercises either.
I got back home about a week and a half ago. I took a few days to recover from jet lag, but I've been back on my health plan for a week. I bike three days a week, do my physio exercises twice a week, and maybe do my physio on the weekend as well, but I didn't this weekend because we did a lot of walking around and I was physically exhausted. Can you tell which days I bike? (My statistics are from Google Fit and "Heart Points" were made in collaboration with the World Health Organization)
I'm still in quite a lot of pain, although it's been a 4-6 on the scale listed below, which I now use to explain my pain level to those who don't understand chronic pain. It's mostly been discomfort or moderate pain, but I have taken panadiene a few times so that I was able to curb the pain enough to sleep. When I'm in a flare, it can get somewhere between an 8 and a 9. (Which you'll note by looking at the tips under the scale, that giving birth without pain medication is an 8, so imagining going through that, or worse, for months at a time instead of the amount of time labour usually lasts!) I'm just glad that it's now Spring in Australia and so my pain will be going down because it's always worse in Winter.
My trip to the US also reinforced just how important it is to have someone supportive when you're dealing with this type of chronic pain. My husband wasn't able to travel with me this time, but he makes such a difference. It is really hard for people to understand invisible illnesses, but he is so incredibly helpful and supporting!
