Analogy

I thought of an analogy for how I am feeling today.  Picture a ship on the ocean that suddenly capsizes.  Every person on the ship is now trying to swim to the safety of the neighboring island.  Everyone around them is swimming and getting to the island in record time.  Our swimmer starts to swim but is quickly feeling the strain, instead of swimming in water, they seem to be swimming in mud, quicksand if you will.  Despite their efforts, they make little or no progress only tiring them out.  Our swimmer now realizes that most of the people have made it to the island, all though they are trying to encourage our swimmer and telling them to 'not give up', 'work thru the pain', and 'stick it out' the encouragement is not helping.  The few that are left in the water soon fatigue and are slipping under the waves, cramping and hurting.  Quickly,  our swimmer realizes they have to slow down and focus on retaining their energy in hopes that help will soon arrive before they, too, slip under the waves. 

Lately, I feel like our swimmer.  Not slipping under the waves but floating on the surface waiting for help to arrive.  Whenever I try to take things on and do my best, I wind up having to 'float' a while so that I don't overdue it and 'sink'.  I feel like I am buying time until a cure is found.  Since my joints won't get better on their own, I am trying to keep them from getting worse until a fix is found.  Kind of like a limbo for ligaments.  The pain level is tolerable so I keep things the same since I know I can deal with it, hoping they don't get worse but knowing deep down inside that it probably will get worse before it gets better. 

For now, all I can really do is take my time, rest, keep moving, take my meds and focus on the positive.  I will just have to make sure my swim suit is on and practice holding my breath.  After all, I am pretty good at the back float. . .