For those of you not familiar with fibromyalgia and other kinds of chronic conditions —  auto immune included — I’m flaring.

Flare does NOT mean: I’m set on fire with gusto;  Enraged; or my hips are getting wider (than they already are).  I’m in a fibro-flare which does mean that my symptoms are loudly reminding me I’m not cured and I need to simmer down a bit.

And the stress that triggered the flare? – I got lost on the freeway.

In hindsight it’s a bit like a Marx Brothers comedy on wheels. I started out going the right way, and thought it was wrong.  So I got off the freeway and got back on the wrong way thinking it was the right way, but I was wrong.

Being the “man” that I am I hadn’t asked for directions when I started out.  After almost ending up in Cuba I decided to pull off the freeway and find someone who could tell up from down and north from south.    I pulled into a church parking lot.  Church people wouldn’t steer me wrong!  And a very nice gentleman “told me where to go”.

Back on the freeway, now heading in the right direction that I thought was wrong in the first place I noticed I was running very low on gas — both the car and me.   Now my adrenaline was pumping.  I anxiously looked for an off-ramp that led to civilization and gas stations. First off-ramp I struck oil.  I was so relieved that it didn’t occur to me that I was the only car there — the station was closed and all I had was cash.

I could go on and on and on, much like my sojourn, but suffice it to say I found an open station further down the freeway and paid $4.03 a gallon!

2 1/2 hours later I was home.

Now I’m in a fibro-flare just because of a ride on the freeway filled with more stress than my system could accommodate*

Exhausted, my whole body hurting – The price of gas is much higher than even I thought.*In many, if not most . . .  or all,  chronic conditions the body is chronically in a stress state.  Added stressors, even small ones, throws the system into an even higher stage of red alert and symptoms become elevated.  Kinda like if you’ve had an injury to a joint (body part, that is).  At rest the joint feels fine but if you tax that joint, sometimes even years later, it will hurt.