Fibromyalgia Resources

Tips and Encouragement

"Brain fog" or "fibro fog" are terms used by fibromyalgia sufferers to describe what happens to clear thinking after repeated sleep loss, extreme fatigue, and chronic pain occur over a period of time.  Examples of brain fog include transposing numbers, misfiling and losing paperwork, forgetting tasks and appointments, difficulty concentrating, and finding recent history a blur (such as yesterday) — and thus feeling foolish and overwhelmed.

To function effectively with a chronic condition like fibromyalgia, you will want your life to be as organized and simplified as possible.  Some first steps might be:

• Keep pads of paper in several places and make to-do lists

• Get rid of unused clutter (clothes, kitchenware, books, linens, medicines, etc.)

• Store items neatly and logically, so they are easy to use (e.g., organize a clothes closet by color)

If you have a computer, you might consider purchasing an inexpensive Microsoft application called OneNote®.  OneNote lets you organize and manage many details of your life in one centralized, creative location:

• Main Topics (colorful tabs along the top) — such as:

  • Work

  • Personal Care

  • House

• Sub-Topics (buttons at left side of each tab) — such as:

  • Within Personal Care:  Health, Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Skin Care, Clothing

  • Within House:  Cooking, Cleaning, Landscaping, Shopping Site

• Contents of Each Page (whatever you want to include) — such as:

  • Tasks and due dates (when to water plants, pay bills, vacuum, plan meals, etc.)

  • Long-range goals (exercise/health, house/landscaping, job-related tasks, etc.)

  • Screen clippings (content pasted from web pages) for researching health or other topics

• Contents of Each Page (whatever you want to include) — such as:

  • Tasks and due dates (when to water plants, pay bills, vacuum, plan meals, etc.)

  • Long-range goals (exercise/health, house/landscaping, job-related tasks, etc.)

  • Screen clippings (content pasted from web pages) for researching health or other topics

• Stationery (background designs you can select for inspiration) — such as:

• Flags (symbols inserted next to your text):

  • Mark items as ToDo, Question, Important, etc.

  • Keep daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks from falling through the cracks

  • Flag summary feature — pulls ToDo's from every page into a single list

Besides keeping track of ongoing tasks, OneNote® is useful for organizing health tips and other information gathered from websites, newspapers, magazines, and books.  You can store bits of advice, insert questions to investigate, and make lists of things you want to pursue.  You CAN stay on top of whatever is important to you.

Questions

Contact:  Joy E. Daniels