Fibro & Flying
I am writing this from a plane on the way to a week long, all-inclusive holiday in Turkey with my husband, Jake, and my in-laws. I am excited and I am exhausted.
Our flight was at 6am so we had to be up at 2.45 this morning and I didn’t sleep well - part anticipation, part excitement and part Harold (our dog) not settling. There’s one hour left to go on the flight followed by a 2 hour drive to the hotel. Then the rest of the day to get through, being exposed to a new environment with new sensory input.
I am preparing for a flare up.
Maybe you’re sat there thinking, that’s a bit negative isn’t it Georgia? To which I’d say, no. That’s just my reality and knowing my body well enough to predict how it will react in certain circumstances. It’s no different to a lactose intolerant person who *knows* they will shit themselves after drinking a giant milkshake.
It’s inevitable. As are my fibromyalgia flare-ups.
The combination of poor sleep, being awake too early, excitement, anxiety, travel (car and plane), an overstimulating airport (all before 10am) is a sure recipe for disaster.
I have to make calculated risks and compromises when it comes to my health. Why? Because otherwise I would have no life.
Often I will want to do something (like go on holiday or hang out with friends) AND I’ll also know it will probably result in a flare up (I’ll talk about what my flare ups look like in another post).
This isn’t a fun choice to make and I shouldn’t have to make it but c’est la vie!
Obviously, very lucky that I get to go on holiday for a week - hopefully I’ll recover quickly so I can enjoy it - but just because I am on holiday doesn’t mean I get a break from my chronic illness. This is the same for all disabled people - we don’t get a day off being disabled. We can’t pick and choose when we feel ‘well’ (relative to our baseline) and when we have flare ups and ‘bad days’.
For the next week I plan to do nothing but rest, eat, sunbathe and read. I’ve brought 4 paperbacks with me and my kindle that has several unread books from my never-ending TBR list. See you on the other side!
In other news:
I submitted two entries to the Wells Festival of Literature earlier this month: one for the Open Poetry category and one for the Short Story category. I really loved writing them both - though they are very different - and will share them with you here once I am allowed (the rules stipulate the entries cannot be shared anywhere else until after the Festival).
This is the first writing competition I have entered any of my work into so needless to say I’m nervous. I’ll find out if either entry has been shortlisted in the next couple of months but even if I’m not I’m really proud of both entries and it’s the first little step (push?) towards openly sharing more of my writing with the big scary world.
One of my personal goals is to submit some form of my writing to some form of publication (blog/magazine/competition etc) once a month. I have no idea how to go about this or how it works or if magazines are still a thing (???) but putting it out there to hold myself accountable. Eek!
Wish me luck!
Thank you for reading, I know it’s quite different to my usual posts but wanted to share my musings with you as I know many of you are here to keep in touch during my social media break.
I would love it if you shared Georgia Writes with someone you think would like it and if you enjoy my work please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Until next time…
Georgia x