Sep 30, 2011

Overdoing It

In my quest to feel useful last week, I decided to tackle our garden. The beautiful summer weather had turned my manicured lines of day-lillies into a small jungle.

With help from my mother (who is over 70 years old!), I spent hours digging up, clipping and splitting day-lilly plants. It was physical work, do doubt, but it didn't seem too onorous.

...until the next morning. HOLY CRUMBS. I have never been so sore in my life from exercise.

This was no ordinary 'after burn' from a workout. This was brutal. I could barely walk, stand or lie down comfortably. The pain mocked the efforts of Tylenol and Advil.

For the first time, I stopped to consider that I might, might, actually have Fibromyalgia.

Before all of this crap started, I used to run regularly, work out at the gym and rock climb. There were times when it took days to get over some of my workouts, but those times were nothing like this.

Fast forward one week and I am moving much more easily, but I still HURT.

My garden, however, looks beautiful. Maybe this weekend I will plant some tulip bulbs...

4 comments:

  1. Take it easy girl! An hour every so often or something - don't kill yourself! :-)

    ((hugz))
    Jamie

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  2. Hm.... We have day lilies, and they have been doing great in the garden (unlike every other plant which we seem to be able to kill with great abandon....). How do you know when you have to dig them up and split them? I just bought some more since I want more low maintenance plants and something other than purple in my garden.... so I'm thinking this issue may come up in the next year or so. Do you have any advice?

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  3. Gardening is very labor intensive and not something I would do for long periods without a massage appt waiting and a pre-dose of Advil.

    Or maybe my muscles are messed up too. But I do know I work up to the level of gardening you did. Or have the hubby do it.

    I've been that sore with and without adrenal weirdness. It sucks and takes about a week to resolve. Some massage would help. Just sit and gently work your knuckles into the thigh and calves. It can be very tender, but you should find that the pain is relieved afterwards.

    M

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  4. Mrs Nice - It didn't seem like I was overdoing it at the time! It didn't really feel like much work at all. Lesson learned. I have a new respect for gardeners.

    OMDG - Our day lilies were planted three years ago. The first two years they were beautiful, this year they were extremely overgrown. I thought they were low maintenance until now! They were almost totally covering our walkway.

    I watched You Tube videos on how to split them; they recommend doing it at this time of year. I would seriously recommend clipping the leaves down to about 10 inches before you start spitting them. I used a shovel, but there apparently is a more appropriate tool for the job. I plan to leave them another three years now that I've thinned them out

    POP - Live and learn, right? I thought if my mom could do it with no pain, it would be easy for me too. LOL....Hubby would suggest that we get our landscapers to do it. I really wanted to actually DO something around the house. You're right. It did take about a week. I've had hot baths for hours each day and massage. Lots of Advil. Today I have no pain at all :-)

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