Pahz Lives with Fibro: It isn't all tears and complaining

This just goes to show how fickle Fibromyalgia really is, especially in my body. Yesterday, I was in so much pain at 4 AM that I cried. I hurt most of the day and the pain lingered. Sometime in the midday, I stood up and a sharp stabbing pain jolted through my foot from my heel to my ankle. I could barely put weight on it. And if you've seen me, you'll know I'm mostly weight. I woke up this morning and the foot pain was gone. I had my usual bodily pain and felt weak.

The disabled guy had to go to the store and asked if I wanted to go with him. Mostly because he hates driving my truck and our son drives his to school (he's in college so his schedule varies). I didn't want to go, but it keeps the peace and I drove. After the store, we had to go to the gas station and I figured since I was driving, I'd take the longer route past where the bald eagles have been hanging around. Whenever the kids or I mentioned it to the disabled guy, he would get angry about it and say stuff like, "I've seen eagles before. They're just a bird!"

Well, true, but the last time either of us have laid eyes on a bald eagle in the wild would have been when we lived in Alaska in the 1980s. But I digress... I'm driving, we went my route.

When we rolled down the curvy road along the river, an eagle was soaring and swooping over the river. I pulled over (because I had my camera). I told him to take the truck to the gas station and then come back for me. He did and I walked along the river and snapped some photos. (most of those didn't turn out). Interesting a side note- there was an older woman walking along the path, watching the eagle. She said it had been the first time to see them. I asked if she meant these eagles specifically or just eagles in general. She meant eagles in general, so the first time she ever saw bald eagles in the wild, she got to see one as it caught prey.

Instead of standing in the wind and cold (I'm wearing a tank top, cableknit hoodie, and I had on my denim jacket) to wait on the disabled guy, I decided to walk up to the corner (its an asphalt path, some ice and snow here and there and a patch of mud I had to walk through). Once I got to the corner, I thought I'd keep going... up the hill (which is to cross the bridge). And I did. And at the other end of the bridge, the disabled guy turned out of the gas station and I waved to him to get him to turn at the next corner. (he didn't, he had to go all the way down and come back up). So, by the time he turned around, I was on the next block. I told him to pull up to the next side street and pull over there (I'm not fond of blocking traffic, unlike the other people who decide to eagle-watch by slamming on their brakes in the middle of the street).

At the top of that hill, I saw one of the eagles again. And I took a bunch more photos. Then I got back into my truck and reset my trip odometer to see how far I'd actually walked. It was just short of a half mile, but at the start and stop, I zig-zagged to take photos. I'm going to call it a cool half mile.

When I got back into the truck after the second set of eagle photos, I said to the disabled guy, "I wonder how bad this is gonna feel tomorrow morning."

He replied, "Probably pretty bad. You might feel it tonight."

I said, "I'll probably feel it in a couple hours after I go through these on the computer." ("these" being the photos). "I'm gonna take a Vicodin when we get home."

He said, "I think you should. Maybe two." (I didn't take two- because it was too close to when I'd normally take the dosage and I don't want to over-medicate).

So there you are. Not all crybaby tears.

And here are the photos.

This is where I started. I walked back from where I'd gotten out of my truck and took a shot of the river.

The eagle eating whatever it was he caught in the river.

Now, I have a fantastic camera- we've all seen the photos I take with it. But, this river is wide and while this is a great camera, it does lack a zoom... granted, I can zoom in very well, but not in this situation. Don't judge my camera, I love it.

You can see the sandbar on the right, where I took that first picture. The eagle would be to the left in this photo (but you obviously can't see him here). This was taken from the bridge.

This is from the other side of the bridge.

And this is my Day 10 of my second 365 days project. I'm out of breath, but I'm not dead and I'm not in all that much pain. I don't know if it was excitement of seeing the eagle as it was flying (if I had been even two minutes earlier, I would have had flying shots of the eagle) or just happiness that I was walking that way. But I did it. (also, I'm standing IN Wisconsin, but Illinois is reflected in my sunglasses).

I walked up the hill to the side street where I'd directed the disabled guy. Two cars were stopped in the street near the corner so I walked over to see where the eagle was- I didn't see it, I had no idea what they were looking at. So I walked back to the truck and climbed in. I told the disabled guy I was going to turn around and "clock it" on the odometer to see how far I'd gone. I turned around and as I slowed to the stop sign, I saw the eagle. I parked on the side of the street, got out and walked all the way back over to the other street to get the photo. These are the shots I got- zoomed in.

Right after I snapped this shot, the eagle took flight. I wasn't paying attention (I was twiddling with my camera settings) and I missed the in-flight shot. But damned if I didn't take a walk today. (I've been trying to maintain a three-times-a-week schedule).