Complications of ANSWERS
Hello Everyone, so I wanted to talk to people about this but it’s been a bit complicated with the other things going on… Hopefully, this is good enough.
So -on my terms– this email kind of turned into a blog but it is important to read because I really don’t want to explain things again. No offense whatsoever, I personally am just tired of repeating myself with everyone having pretty much the same questions. I might even actually put this on my public blog and whenever someone asks me such questions I might just straight up refer them to this post LOL 😂 don’t worry, I’ll remove your name. I did that.
You asked me this question before and I never completely answered your question. Your question from what I recall was, “what is an average day for you? What do you do? What is your normal morning routine?”
Basically questions like that which are extremely difficult for me to answer due to my migraines and other physical problems blah blah blah. .. You’ve also asked me about how many hours of sleep I get and when I take my medicine, but most of all you and other people always have this one overall question continuously even though I’ve answered repetitively, “Why do you send emails at 3:00 a.m. rather than during the day?”
First of all, I do not expect anyone to be reading their emails at 3:00 a.m. like I do, nor do I expect them to respond until after noon the same day or 3 days to 7 Days later, depending on the individual. I understand that most people only work Monday through Friday and only have access to their email accounts Monday through Friday for work and thus will only receive such emails on Monday or after 8:00 a.m. when they log in. I send the emails when I am able to do so and because your phone should not ping from a work email at 3:00 a.m. due to the average person having their smartphone in silence/sleep/bedtime mode between 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. for the majority or even 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 a.m. where their phone is silenced for work emails that entire time, I do not expect my email being sent at 3:00 a.m. to actually wake up anyone.
My emails are long because I treat them as letters rather than as text messages.
I understand that some people, especially in work offices, seem to treat emails more so as quick messages like a text message rather than a letter that is to be sat down with and taking the time to read. I mean no disrespect whatsoever and I do not mean to stress out anyone by sending long emails either though, I’ve always treated emails like letters.
The ones I send you with detailed information you can always read later when you have the time versus when you are in a rush or busy with something. I do not expect an immediate reply to a long email ever, I would never expect something like that. I myself could not do that.
So here’s the overall schedule that I actually can manage to stick to even with a migraine the majority of the time.
I usually go to sleep (actual sleep- not just resting my back/legs) twice every 24 hours to make up anywhere from 8 hours of sleep to 10 hours of sleep. Seriously though, just because I’m laying down on my bed does not mean that I am sleeping.
I take my medicine between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. and I go to bed at 10:00 p.m. officially. Then I wake up between midnight and 3:00 a.m. to take my midnight medication; normally I go right back to sleep but before I do, I go through my emails at this quiet time of night when my mind is more clear and is usually free of a migraine.
That is why I sent emails at 3:00 a.m. or check my tbk account at 1:00 a.m. sort of thing.
Then normally by 3:00 a.m. I go back to bed.
Then I wake up around 5:00 a.m. to try to make my body start working and be physically safe enough to move around my apartment and become “clear of mind” FOCUSED to do things safely mentally and physically. This is when I normally do my physical therapy and OT strategies while laying down before even attempting to sit up. Then I sit up eventually and do my sitting down exercises, some of them. (it can take me anywhere from 1 to 3 hours) After I’m able to Bear some weight on my legs and see across the room enough, I go to the bathroom and wash my face.
After all of that, I go to the kitchen to make my breakfast and take my medicine between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. + feed my fish and guinea pigs, water the plants, look outside my door for packages, etc.
At about 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. depending on how I feel, I then take another nap for as long as my body requires for the medicine to actually work, normally about 30 minutes to 2 hours. I am not necessarily asleep that entire time, yet on my bed. It all depends on how I feel after those activities and taking my medication.. my morning medicine contains a Flexeril to prevent me from getting stiff and stuck in bed all day so that I can move around, sometimes this medicine takes a while to actually start working and I normally start getting stiff after taking the Flexeril so I basically have to lay down and redo some of my physical therapy / occupational therapy exercises.
Anywhere from the time I get up after I’ll be either doing crafts, cleaning, cooking, website code, playing with my Guinea pigs, feeding my fish again, giving my guinea pigs treats, doing whatever.. at approximately around noon I will take my noon medication. At that time I normally put up my feet for approximately 30 minutes and then continue doing whatever I was doing before. That is simply to prevent/reduce swelling.
“Why are you laying down in bed so often?”
With my legs swelling, it’s easier to get my legs above my heart and more comfortable and more appropriate to do so upon my bed. I honestly can’t imagine how I’d get my body into that form / shape well in a public place, unless it’s the living room and I’m putting my legs up on the arm of the sofa with pillows under my knees. If you think there’s another way to do so appropriately in public then by all means, feel free to explain it to me because I would appreciate it.
During any time of the day or night when my legs begin to swell, if they swell, I immediately laid down as soon as possible and get my legs up above my heart to reduce the swelling. This can happen multiple times a day which is extremely annoying. Basically when my foot swells to such a point I might have to cut off my shoe, which actually happened in the ambulance when my foot swelled up one time in the past and I never want to lose my shoes that way again because they were expensive and I also don’t want to lose my feet because my shoe cut off the circulation LOL but seriously, that’s why I constantly put my legs up.
“Why are you always leaning on the door?”
“Why are you in the wheelchair every time you answer the door? I thought you said you were walking around inside your apartment more.”
I am walking around more, just not when people are here, for safety sake.
When other people come over or whenever I answer the door, I am usually either leaning on the door frame or the door itself, to steddy myself, or I’m sitting down in a wheelchair literally one minute before answering the door just to prevent me from falling over or getting bumped or knocked over in any way if someone were to enter upon me answering the door.. I tripped on my cousin’s wheelchair and it’s not going to happen again. Basically I do not have good depth perception therefore when someone else is in the room I am usually standing a bit away from them so that we don’t accidentally collide and no I’m not even talking about the six feet thing due to covid that was like a thing I’ve been doing the majority of my life just for the sake of safety and balance.
“Why are you always laying down when I’m visiting here?”
When other people are walking around inside my home, I tend to get motion sickness which can only be fixed without medication if I have my eyes closed or I am laying down. Do not be disrespectful and having my eyes closed while talking to someone, laying down on my bed while they are sitting on the chair in my room to talk to me, just seems more appropriate.. Obviously if it wasn’t a help at home person or a family member, I would be laying down on the sofa instead of my bed.
So that’s the majority of my day.
I repeat my morning routine that I use upon waking up, the same one at night before bed except I do it in reverse.
Between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. I eat and take my night medicine.
Using this routine, I am able to be awake during the day of normal hours and asleep during the average lunch time of office hours. It just works out pretty great that way. That way I can do phone calls to doctor offices before they go on their lunch break and after they get back from their lunch break. I almost never answer the phone after 5:00 p.m. because I know that it can’t possibly be a doctor. Unless I recognize the caller ID as a family member or friend, I let the phone call go to voicemail. 😅 I basically never answer the phone on Sundays.
I check outside my door for any packages.
I eat my dinner and take my medicine.
I feed my pets and check on my plants.
I wash up in the bathroom.
I laid down and do my pt/ot exercises.
Then instead of waking up, I try to sleep in my bed. Eventually falling asleep to wake up and repeat it all over again.
Before washing up in the bathroom and laying down to go to bed, any free time before that or in between any of that; I wash my dishes, do little tasks here and there, clean up or continue doing the craft I was earlier, watch Netflix and hang out with my guinea pigs, etc.
I always aim to be asleep by 10:00 p.m.
Sometimes I will have a horrible migraine while I am resting my legs during the day around 3:00 p.m. or noon just after eating my lunch or before it is time for me to eat my dinner, I will end up taking a nap. This is the second time of the day where I MIGHT actually get some real sleep because sleeping with a migraine is almost impossible unless I take the full dose of my medication for the migraines and I prefer to take only half a dose so that I can continue on with my day. So yes, I remain in pain during my day but I am able to complete the rest of my tasks or at least get them partially done to be completed or continued upon with the crafts the next day. Blah blah blah I really rambled on but the details are actually important. I’ve already removed the majority, more than 80% of irrelevant information from this letter.
Please take your time reading this to understand and have your questions fully answered? Thank you have a nice day!
Melissa Carlisle / MCtheGirL
This was originally an email
😅 now it’s totally public
WARNING ⚠️ There is guaranteed to be spelling mistakes here in this blog post along with run-on sentences so if such things stress you out, avoid reading this blog. Do not bother for corrections here.