Hello everyone!!

Two days of December have come and gone and we are already half through the third one.

Time really flies, and I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who is trying to manage things in preparation for the festivities.

Like my dear friend @CoquiCoin and @Probinsyano I have an upcoming birthday celebration, well two actually: my mom's, which I next weekend and my nephew's which was yesterday but they are celebrating it here next week.

So, between that, Christmas decorations and work, I'm already drained of almost all my energy. Which makes me remember the first Christmas I celebrated after my Fibro diagnosis...

After a year of doctors, tests and wrong diagnosis, I finally got the answer for the questions I had. My pain and tiredness was caused by a Chronic Illness called Fibromyalgia.

Fun fact: I tapped Fibromyalgia on the images searcher of this site and all I got was Cannabis pictures 😅🤫

I had a hard time copping with the news that I have an incurable illness and that my life would not be the same anymore.

Until a year earlier I was a very energetic woman, I could keep up with long hours of work, household chores, partying, playing sports, helping others with their stuff, and suddenly that was not the case anymore. I couldn't do any of those things because the pain was too great, the fatigue and exhaustion was overbearing for me an for those around me who didn't understand what I was going through.

My family had a hard time too, they didn't understand it either specially because of this: I looked fine. Nothing on my appearance suggested that I was ill, so they had to take my word for it, an it was hard, because, how can you believe on something that you can't see?

Of course that made things even harder because I couldn't proof to them what I had, or so I thought...

I decided to do all the things I wanted despite the pain I felt. The medication had me nauseous but in pain but I didn't said anything.

I painted, went to get groceries, sat 4 to 6 hours on rehearsals for the Christmas Concert and kept my complaints for myself.

They thought that I was fine, that Fibro was no biggie and that all I had to do was keep living my life as always, with my medication of course. By the time Christmas Eve came I was way over the top but I put on my poker face and pretended for a while.

My brother George got me a tall glass of Coca-cola while he got a beer, an we sat on the porch and started talking. Out of the blue, he sees me with his eyes wide open and asks:

Are you alright?!

Yes, I'm fine, why?

He then started screaming for my mom to come, and at that point I didn't realized what was happening. As it turns out my right harm had started to get bigger and it was trembling. I was used to that but they hadn't seen it before because I kept it hidden from them, so it was a shock for all that saw what happened, and more shocking was my coolness about it.

After they calmed down and I broke two glasses because of the trembling, they asked me why I was so calmed, so I explained that it was a frequent occurrence and it was a body reaction to excessive pain and fatigue.

Why didn't you say anything? My brother asked.

Because when I did you looked me like I was exaggerating so I kept it hidden from all. But it has happened before an surely will happen again.

From that moment on, all realized that it was serious and that I wasn't the same anymore, and significant changes were made to ensure that I wasn't overworking my body, and because of that, we ended up having a very Merry Christmas.

After twelve years, I've learned to manage my condition even without meds, and try to keep a steady but quiet pace so that won't happen again.

Of course, easy said that done because my fibro has evolved and that's not the only thing that happens, but now, my family is well aware that I'm not jocking or exaggerating, and became my support sistem, my rock.

This Christmas it's just my mom an my little sister, but between the three of us we'll paint (already started) and decorate and cook delicious meals for us and for those who want to join us as well.

And as I've doing snice the first one, I'll do my best to keep up and make sure everyone has a very Merry Christmas 💕💕

Check out my wonderful sponsors and their awesome content!

This is 100% Original Content.

The images are from Unsplash and provided by this site.

See you next time.

✨✨ Blessings ✨✨

@rebeysa85

December 3rth, 2021.