The rebound
I had an amazing week! My roommate's Mom came to stay with us for eight days, and we had a blast. My roommate was a good friend with my younger brother when we were growing up, so she's been in my life for over 20 years. And I was worried about my current symptoms, they've been so prevalent and disrupting during the last year.
But I was strong. I walked without a cane. We went to the coast and walked in the sand. We went to the Saturday market via train and walked 3 miles. We went to the Rose garden and walked for hours. And I made it through. We crossed off every item she had on her bucket list and made so many good memories. It was amazing!
But I could feel it creeping back in the last few days, the wobbles and the fatigue. I fought it hard to make it through the end of her trip. And fought even harder to make it through the end of my work week.
And here I am now on Saturday, almost unable to move, exhausted, spent half the day in bed, and just done. The muscles are all trembling and I am so very tired. I knew that I would have a rebound, it's inevitable with how hard I pushed myself, but it's not fun. I'll pick myself up by Monday... it's hard though.
I had a point to this story, I promise you that I did, but I can't remember it now. Silly brain not wanting to cooperate. So I'll leave it with this: I would love to hear some of your stories. Any of you deal with the rebound? And do you have any tips or tricks to make it through?
Much love 💜💜
I am so glad you had a wondeful time,
! It sounds like a lovely time. But, whew! Walking in the sand always wears me out and makes my leg muscles hurt!
I am sorry you are paying for all that activity and I hope your body is starting to recover. I know activity hangover (or rebound, as you called it) can be such a bummer to deal with!
I wanted to share this story from one of our contributors about overdoing it and how she manages (with plenty of member comments at the end of the article) -- https://multiplesclerosis.net/living-with-ms/what-to-do-when-you-overdo-it. And, we do tend to see an influx of more 'rebound' stories around the holidays, when it's pretty hard to avoid overdoing it!
Again, I hope you're recovering okay and I hope good memories of the time spent together makes you smile.
Best, Erin, Team Member.thank you for the thoughts and sharing the article. I did find helpful and resounding. It's really hard for me to adjust to my new speed limit... I've always been the person doing a million things at once and taking on every task around me. Learning to say no, or not today, or even just I need a moment has been really hard.
We had such an amazing time, and I'm so glad I was able to facilitate the visit. We lost my husband's Mom at the beginning of the pandemic, mere months after she came out and visited us from the east coast. Then my Dad on Thanksgiving 2022, not long after I had orchestrated an epic road trip to see all the families. And I just...got a feeling that I needed to make it happen now, while both the husband and the roommate out of work and had the free time to enjoy it.
I'm slowly rebounding, it's definitely hitting me harder than I anticipated. But I don't regret a single minute and would do it all again in a heartbeat! And yeah, the walking in the sand was probably the hardest part of the week, my legs were burning by the time we got back to the car.
I am looking forward to figuring out a healthy balance in the coming year so I can keep doing the things we love and trying to not hit the wall of pushing too hard. 💜💜
