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Anything out of the ordinary --a vacation, holiday celebrations, moving, or for people with serious CFS or FM, just going out of the house for any reason-- can creates a relapse, but you can make a special event more manageable if you use three strategies explained in the article Travel and Other Special Events:
1) Take extra rest before, during and after
2) Plan in detail
3) Discuss your plans with others
Here's an example of using the strategies to reduce greatly the price of a special event. It comes from Rose, a woman who had been bedbound for a decade at the time of the event, although she improved substantially in the years that followed.
For several years during the time she was bedbound, she had annual week-long visits from her daughter and granddaughter. These visits triggered relapses that lasted about six monthly each, a big price for a week with her relatives. The long relapses motivated her to try something different.
She did three things before the visit. First, she reduced her usual activities for several days prior to the visit, using the time for extra rest.
Second, she created a plan for the visit. It involved alternating days of socializing with days of quiet rest, and also changing how she spent time with her granddaughter to focus on quiet activities.
Third, she explained her plan to her daughter, who accepted it and discussed it with her daughter.
During the visit, Rose spent time with her granddaughter every other day, but in a quiet way that did not overwhelm her.
After her visitors left, she spent two days resting and then resumed her normal activities with no relapse.
Instead of a family visit leading to a months-long relapse, it was an experience of control through pacing.
She said about the visit, “I had never even come close to surviving a visit from my granddaughter since developing CFS/FMS. It absolutely thrilled me that we were able to make some special memories together without it being damaging for me.”
She used the same strategies to manage other visits by her daughter and granddaughter, including a much longer visit that occurred almost three years after the initial success. |