Why Fibros crash when we over-do-it.

I had been doing home repairs for hire for a few weeks.  Great property, and the homeowners had lots of different things they wanted done.  Some skilled work and some hard, heavy labor.

Replaced top pole on a section of chain link fence, hung a couple of ceiling light fixtures, set up a two-high stack of Baker's scaffolding on wheels, pulled wallpaper (some 2 layers thick + 1 layer of paint on it.), cut lower limbs from citrus tree, hung water hose hanger on outside and planted 128 St. Auggie grass plugs. 

Dry-scraped a popcorn ceiling as an experiment.  Went back and wet it down and removed it all.

Replaced a glass door in an armoire.  Drilled a couple of holes in concrete driveway to accept gate lock pins.

Re-skimmed some ceiling and wall, took down venetian blinds and old wall lighting fixtures and a mirror, replaced door latches, moved furniture out of one room and aside in others to be able to do some of this stuff.

Usually I will work for a couple or three days hard - 8:00 am to 8:00 pm maybe.  Then take off a day if I start feeling tired out. 

The homeowners had no schedule when I started, but their plans changed when a guest was expected.

They wanted to try to get a lot done in a short period of time.  Didn't seem like a problem.

I kept working and - didn't realize I had not chewed nearly enough TUMS, even for normal circumstances.

Had already worked several days at that point, and after 6 days straight I started feeling that I was not worth what they were paying me.  Finally pooped out completely on the 7th day and just went home.

My hands had gotten very "dumb" and hands and arms just weren't putting out the work.  I was brain-foggy for those last couple of days.  And eventually got all out of whack and couldn't do anything. 

(That is the "crash" part.)

Saliva pH had gotten down to 5.0 (highly acid).  (Big thanks to Mary Susan who thought to check it for me.) 

Normal Saliva pH is around 7.0,  and ideal for me to feel good, for best general health and no FMS symptoms.

I'm an Overly Acidic Fibro, and extremely severe FMS.  It takes quite a bit of the meds and lots of alkali to keep me close to normal.

Otherwise all the lymphatic fluid throughout my body is too thick and can't reach all parts of the extremities and other intricate areas. 

My saliva pH is usually fine, though, because of that, so I don't check it regularly. (That's the "dummy" part.)

A few days later Dr. Harris and I were talking about it and he mentioned lactic acid might be the culprit.  (Dr. Tom shoots - he scores!)

When you use your muscles, lactic acid increases.  Folks used to think that is what caused the pain after a workout that normal folks feel.  Researchers say that's not true, though.

But the increase in lactic acid may have added to my overall body-wide acid load and there was not enough meds / TUMS to keep up.

Seems to be true.

The increase in acid caused by muscle use feels different than when acid goes up due to foods, etc. so I didn't see it coming. Now we think we know what to watch for.

Got my pH back up to 7.0 (not acid), and felt fine again. Took a while, though.  It didn't just bounce right back, as 5.0 is way off, but I was in our back yard the next morning pulling some weeds and cutting back big philodendrons.

Don't think I've been quite as good since, even a year or more later.

 

I'm not sure how the same situation of muscle use would affect Overly Alkali Fibros.

"One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles

possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity."

Albert Schweitzer