One of the things that I find really difficult as I deal with my CRPS is learning to deal with my lack of energy and pacing myself through the course of the day. If you suffer from CRPS then you know what I’m talking about. There are days that I get out of bed and feel like every ounce of energy has been drained from my body. Do you have trouble managing your energy through the course of a day? Then what you have to do is learn to pace yourself through the course of a day.

Your energy levels are affected in many ways and unless we learn how to manage them, then it becomes more and more difficult to get through the course of a day. First of all the amount of sleep that people with CRPS get is a very big reason that our energy levels are affected. So often is the case that we suffer from broken sleep patterns. The other thing that is a big drain on our energy is our pain. Living in pain 24hrs a day is a very significant drain on our energy. The last big reason that we suffer from a lack of energy is from the medications that we take, and the side effects that they have. This being said it’s understandable that we suffer from a reduced amount of energy through the course of an given day. Do you know how to pace your energy?

Learning to do this can be difficult because more often than not we have a tendency to tell ourselves that we can do more than we really can. As I push myself beyond my where I should, what I find is that I make my condition worse. Sometimes this can cause me to flare up.

When you learn how to pace yourself and manage your energy you find that your days are a little easier to get through, because you aren’t feeling as burnt out all the time. But this wasn’t something that came overnight. I have needed to recognize the fact that I can’t do everything that I necessarily want to do. An easy way to teach yourself how to pace yourself, is to assign yourself an imaginary dollar value to your energy level for the day. You would then assign things that you do in the course of the day with a dollar value. When you have reached to dollar value that you set for that day your finished, it’s time to let your body rest.

So take for example that you have $100.00 to use in the course of a day. You may choose to do 4 small things around your house that have a $25 price tag attached to them on a day that you feel like you have less energy or one big thing that has a $100 total value attached to it when you feel like you have more energy. The point is that when your learning how to work or do things within your limits and not to exceed your limitations.

Do I always do a great job at pacing myself? I would say that it’s an ongoing project and that I could do a better job. It’s not always easy because sometimes the desire to do things, just because your tired of doing nothing overtakes what’s right for you. Slowly I have been learning however that you have to give in and listen to what your body is saying to you. I’m finding that as I listen to my body and pace myself through the course of a day that I don’t get as many flare ups!!