Fibromyalgia and the holidays

We enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. My husband and son-in-law slept in front of the tv and my daughter and I played games all afternoon with the kids. We all enjoyed the day. Of course we ate too much ( I gained 2 pounds). The bad part of the day for me was preparing dinner. My daughter and I shared the work but I still wound up having to stand for quite a while which made me hurt pretty bad. I had to take a pain pill which I don't like to with the children around. But by the time we had eaten I was feeling better.

Another problem I had with Thanksgiving dinner is a problem I have with every meal. I have lichen planus in my mouth and I have dentures. It is amazing that I can eat as much as I did because every bite is painful. It is particularly bad if I get food under the dentures, which unfortunately happens frequently. I have had to give up a lot of foods that I like because of the pain. I can't eat anything even mildly spicy or very sweet because those foods burn my mouth so bad. I can't eat anything hard because it hurts to chew. I do on occasion eat things that really bother me just because I like them, but those times are becoming less frequent. Everything I've read about lichen says that it usually goes away after a year or two, but I've had it for about 7 years. I also have vuvular lichen and lichen in my fingernails. I'm told it is rare to have more than one form but that's me, if I can have anything that makes a person miserable I will get it.

I have been doing some Christmas shopping but I find that I need to know what I going to buy because I can only stand to walk around in the stores for a few minutes. When I go to buy groceries or if I try to wander around the store and look for things I wind up hurting big time.

I got our store decorated for Christmas but that took more than a week. It is very hard to get done the things I need to do.

But despite all my problems the holidays so far are going well. I've almost finished my Christmas shopping and I'm wrapping the gifts 1 or 2 at a time, instead of waiting til the last minute and having to do them all at once like I usually do. I spent some time yesterday addressing and writing cards to go our troops overseas. Now I need to do cards for family and friends. We didn't decorate at home last year and I haven't decided if we will this year; it takes an awful lot of work and pain.