Today, I received three teas: Strawberry Lemonade, Watermelon Mint, and Mango Lemonade. I really love to enjoy a lemonade on a hot day after I finish my courses for the day. I go sit on my patio, we call it patio'clock, and it's a time to unwind before supper needs to be prepared, cooked, and served.

For my tea selection that I favor are usually fruit herbal, rooibos, and basically anything that I can make into an iced tea or a chai latte! I also aim to get the teas that are low in caffeine.

It's a bit of a heat wave in our area of Ontario, Canada. Please keep yourself hydrated and enjoy some iced teas and keep drinking water to concur this heat.

Today was our first delivery of Hello Fresh. Tonight's amazing dish was the Cheesy Monterey Jack Burgers, with a side of potatoes. I truly enjoyed my first meal from Hello Fresh. 
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I am a full time college student who has fibromyalgia. Since the pandemic imposed self isolation and stay at home orders, I rarely go to the grocery store(s). I love that the meals are easy to prepare. I also love that I am able to select my meals plans to accommodate my need to eat more protein and veggies to help, I hope that these changes will help ease my fibromyalgia body pains and hopefully see improvements in my energy.

My spouse may not have time to go get our ingredients everyday, he works long hours. I have been thinking about Hello Fresh for a very long time. My two youngest children, ages 15 and 12 years old respectively, are able to cook and clean. Their new chore that begins tomorrow, Wednesday, June 9, will be to cook and present our second Hello Fresh meal. Half our daily battles is What's for dinner? ​Well, Hello Fresh has that solution for our family.

Book list in the library and try out a new empowering playlist,
​on repeat for today is Imani Coppola. 

Today ended up being a bad fibro flare day, I guess I used my hands and arms too much during school and getting my workspace organized, I was reminded that I have preventative measures that I neglected lately. 

​In a previous post about my favorite products, I talked about the products I use for fibro flares (preventative and during a flare). Click the photo below to visit that post. There's links available to each product.

The last time I sat in a hairdresser's chair was January 2, 2020. I was to have a follow up appointment to start treatment to achieve the hairstyle of choice, lavender locks that would be about shoulder length. The follow up never happened because of the pandemic. For several weeks, if not months, I've been complaining about my brittle hair; the damage goes over half the length of my hair, it's thin, and I lose hair in small clumps. This is probably connected to adrenal function. I've had enough and I can't even manage it anyway. Several nights, I would say something to Kirk about my hair and he would joke out taking the scissors and cutting it at shoulder length, I finally called him out on his comments and told him to cut my hair. He said no initially, but he said yes last night. 

As mentioned in the previous post about my hairstyles called How I Manage My Hair With Fibromyalgia, I prefer having a short style. My styles of choice is a pixie haircut or a bob. I wanted my hair to be styled in braids while it was long, but with my eldest daughter on her own in her new apartment and Kirk working long hours at work, I don't have help with my hair. It was time to let the damaged hair go and start fresh with a short style.

I am super impressed with my haircut, this was the first time Kirk cut my hair. He is surprisingly good at everything he tries. He's my Jack of all trades.

When Katie saw my haircut this morning, they were shook. I told them that if they're still looking for that hair trim they spoke about recently, that I know a guy that does hair. (lol)

As a woman who needs medical appointments for maintaining care (and possible) treatments for Fibromyalgia; who has no access to family physicians or nurse practitioner practices in my immediate local (I can't travel outside my city limits because I do not drive). I have to think outside my medical team "box" and pick and choose alternative health care solutions. Your medical team could include your GP/FP, a nurse practitioner, physiotherapist, message therapist, acupuncturists, and/or any specialist(s) that you need for your chronic illness care and maintenance.

Before I was diagnosed, I had an amazing physician who believed in my struggles and worked along side of me to find solutions; trial and error with prescriptions, tests such as ultrasounds, x-rays, CT-scans, MRI, and she referred me to different specialists. It was a long process of the elimination game to zero in on the "real culprit". In November 2018, she diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. The rheumatologist confirmed her diagnosis with additional blood work and a single consultation that I do, in fact, have Fibromyalgia.

My lovely doctor closed her practice in the summer 2019; my family was transferred to another physician within an umbrella of medical services but when he closed his office in April 2020, he did not refer us to another GP within that umbrella and we lost many needed services.

I was more likely to click the second over the first one for many reasons, but my #1 why is that I don't even have a waiting room to get to, there is no GP available and online services seem to begun a new health care system in its own.

I must note that this services look like they are coming from the private sector (Loblaws)  and most, if not all, have fees associated with them. To speak with a GP, it is $49 (please see gallery of screenshots from their PC health app. I read on the reviews page that PEI will assist or repay the fee to see the GP, if you do not have one to consult. I do not live in PEI, please verify with your health care department from your government agency.

With PC health services, there is an option to book an appointment with a chronic pain physician. I was most impressed with the variety of appointments.

As I have stated before, I am without a family physician; I have been without OHIP covered medical services for a year. Any services I have gotten since May 2020, I have paid out of pocket for physiotherapy, a consultation with a naturopathic doctor, and my adrenal function test. As a person who has no GP/FP (and on a waitlist), I am considering this alternative to find answers and continue to maintain care.

I wanted to share my favorite products I use on a daily bases for my self-care and products that ease my pain during recovery from a flare or daily pains.

Every night before I fall asleep, I use Yves Rocher Anti-Fatigue/Anti-Tiredness Foot Soothing Iced Gel & Yves Rocher Light Legs Fresh Gel. I just discovered these Yves Rocher products this month and I love them very much, I don't hurt as much in the morning.
My favorite pain relief topical cream is by Mind Body Matrix. I was gifted a sample size bottle last summer when I joined the International Fibromyalgia Coaching Institute. I was so pleased that I felt immediate relief in my back, neck, and shoulders (or wherever else, I had applied it for pain relief). It is a pricey item, but I believe it is worth the cost, for it's an alternative to prescription medication that I don't have access to.
I use an essential oil called Worry Not, I apply it at bedtime on my wrists, breathe in the aroma and peacefully fall asleep.
If I have a headache, I use a frozen eye pillow created by KrumaCreations, either on the back of my neck or over my eyes.

My top apps for tracking my fibromyalgia symptoms, pain, and moods:
Bellabeat
Daylio
​GeoPain

​For my 38th birthday, my family got me my beautiful Bellabeat leaf, in rose gold; it's a smart jewelry on premium blackwood that gives an earthy/nature look that I adore. The bellabeat tracks activity, sleep, meditation,  reproductive health, and smart alarm. I decided that this was the product for me because of the sleep tracking and the beautiful design.

​Recently, I saw that Bellabeat has a waitlist for their new edition. It is called Ivy Bellabeat and it tracks heart rate, resting heart rate, respiratory rate, sleep quality and duration, and more. I love that the Ivy has these new tracking options, but I am not sure I am in love with the design/the look of the Ivy.

Daylio is a fun way to track moods. I use it everyday for almost every activity I do each day. I discovered this app two years ago; it compiles your data and the stat reports are great to go over and see what improves mood and what doesn't help improve mood, there's cute badges "achievements" to earn, and weekly mood reports that show you last week vs. this week mood chart.

GeoPain is fantastic for tracking daily medication and has a great pain chart; it has a great design and 3D body chart. It was easier to track my headaches, I could draw on the actual area that hurts, and see the different headaches (sinus or migraine). On GeoPain, under treatments, you can list your medication and supplements, and so much more.

Please comment below, let me know your favorite health & wellness tracking app?

Today is my two year anniversary being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. November has been hard this year, but it seems like I have had difficult Novembers every year or most years. When I was a teenager, November is when I got mono and sprained my ankle during a food drive. My dad passed away in November five years ago. And this year, maybe it's COVID fatigue, I've been having troubles sleeping, being fatigued, and having difficulties being motivated most days. Most mornings is hard to get up and get going, my legs and feet feel like they're full of pins and needles. I lay on my back and wiggle my toes, then my feet, and finally my legs to get the pain to lessen so I can get myself together for my online classes. I've had very few "good days" this month, but when I do have a good day I really appreciate the time and energy.

​On Wednesday, I had a class presentation about self-care. I was nervous to share but I realized that we had to share and my class is super supportive of each other. I was able to share my story about myself, my influences, my past issue(s), my life with Fibromyalgia, and how I am planning to self care in my daily routine.  My classmates were amazing, sharing praise and really made me realize my dream is possible and I will not allow my illness define me. I'm surrounded by wonderful and brave classmates, I am so grateful this is our class, and we are growing together and pushing each other for greatness: where our paths after IWAP I am sure these people will be the greatest in their respected fields. I am proud of them and the passion they bring to helping out others. F.Y.I. we take our course online through zoom, good times!
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​Today, I promised myself a day of rest since I was home alone. I fell asleep around 3:30 a.m. My neck and back felt twisted and I just relaxed most of the day. At lunchtime, my husband came home and made me feel happy and we spent time cuddling until he had to go back to work. I treated myself to a Cineplex rental tonight; I rented Frida, I have never seen the movie. It was so beautiful and amazingly casted, I do recommend this film.

Honestly, I am spoiled. I get a lot of help with my hair. There was a time when every time I washed my hair, I would be exhausted afterwards, still happens once and a while, so I ask for someone in the house to brush my hair for me. For about a year, I have had long hair. I believe it would have been shoulder length this time last year and now it's just above my chest. My preferred hairstyle for several years has been the pixie cut and most years previous to 2010, I usually kept to bobs and chin length styles, with the exceptions of three different years that I had long hair for special occasions: 1997, 2005 & 2008.


My daughters bugged me to grow my hair long and they promised they would style it for me as long as it was grown out. Just my oldest daughter was actually helping with my hair, she would braid my bangs and pin them back when I was started college in the fall of 2019. For my birthday this year, my oldest daughter gave me that cute crimped look in my blog profile photo (she did my makeup too). In the late spring, or early summer, she started doing French braid in my hair, I love that look. When she left for college in September, my husband styled my hair a few times and I really loved the style he tried on September 13th, it was simply beautiful.

Lately, I am sick of my long hair, it's so damaged from the hair dyes I've used and I've tried reviving it but it's still broken and the color is imperfect. I am very temped to go back to a pixie style but might consider a style that is short and could easily be styled with a braid or something simple for my daughter(s) or my husband to style for me.