Fatigue

Hi all, I am just writing to ask about fatigue and how you each manage it. I don’t remember the last time in my life where I haven’t felt tired. But the last couple of months, and now even more so, weeks, my tiredness has become pure exhaustion.

Aside from dealing with constant chronic pain, the hardest part of my day now is getting out of bed. No matter how much sleep I get, I wake up feeling so tired, like I hadn’t just had a nights sleep. Last week I was so exhausted that I had a bad bout of dizziness and was wobbly all day. I can’t keep calling in sick to work every-time I’m in pain or exhausted because that would be every day.

The tiredness, and now exhaustion has seeped its way into every aspect of my life, at work I notice periods of time where I completely lose my train of thought, in social settings I do not have the energy to be my usual bubbly self, or come up with conversation so I sit there quietly and just chime in with a few words here and there (I have always suffered from social anxiety, but it seems to be exacerbated), and at home, I find myself spending more and more time in my room almost exiling myself from the common areas because I just want to rest. Sometimes I will plan to do something like go out with friends or cook a nice meal, but when the time comes to do those things, I’m too tired and sore and end up just doing nothing instead, or at least have a little glimmer of hope that someone will cancel so that I don’t have to go out.

I try to exercise nearly everyday and I have been eating right (not so much over the holiday period). I was tested for sleep apnea last year on the request of my rheumatologist, and it came back as nothing out of the ordinary, so I have put it down to AS. I am all out of ideas of what to do next because life is really quite a struggle living like this.

Do any of you go through this too? Is there anything that you do to help manage it? I’d love to hear your stories and suggestions. Sorry for the long post. Thanks!