Fatigued as a (broken) Fitbit Battery

December 12, 2016

Yesterday my Fitbit battery was running low. Really low. Constant reminders popped up over the morning..."charge me now!" It shouted at me. 


Make It, Bake It, Fake It

I listened. I plugged it into the charger and went about the things I was doing.
A couple of hours later I went back to retrieve it. I put it on. Started doing more life and then the yelling started again. Charge me! Charge me now! Critical situation!!!! (Slight over exaggeration...but you get my drift.)
Make It, Bake It, Fake It
It even gives me charging instructions...yet!

I didn't get it. It had spent all morning charging. Yet, it was empty.
(Chances are I had put it in backwards into the charger as I have realised I have done in the past...and had had a bit of a brain fog moment.)

Anyway, I stopped what I was doing and put it (back) into charge. A quick 15 minutes before I was set to go for a walk. It gave me enough battery life to get through the walk and the evening activities before the warning lights flashed again. 

As I went to bed, I plugged it into the charger (double checking I had inserted correctly) and forgoed the opportunity to monitor my sleep...and let it do it's charging.

This reminds me a lot like my life at the moment. A Fitbit running on critical battery life. I have heard this fatigued life likened to spoons or batteries before, so no new concepts here, but here is my take for this week.

Despite charging and resting more than enough my body is constantly running on critical. Warning signals flash before me all day long...the brain fog, the misplacing something...again, the sweeping nausea, the dizziness on standing, the throbbing pain, the eyes that just want to droop.

So, I stop everything and rest momentarily...15 minutes or an hour.

It's enough to top up my energy reservoir/battery long enough to do a couple more things...yet, it never gets to fully charged. It can't. My body is like a defective Fitbit (or one placed wrongly in the charger!) it cannot charge. It will not. Despite all attempts. Despite all the required energy battery juice being inserted it just will not fill up.

My body will spend the night sleeping, doing exactly what it should be doing to restore and reenergise, except unlike my correctly inserted in charger Fitbit, I will wake in the morning no more energised than the night before. My battery system again ready for another day surviving on critical.

This is life with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue syndrome). Fatigued as a broken Fitbit battery.

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7 comments

  1. This is right on target.

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  2. I can totally identify. Fatigue is my biggest struggle. Love this!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Valerie! Isn't fatigue the worst...I often dream of a fatigue killing pill...like a pain killer, that would just even for an hour or two, take away that ridiculous all encompassing fatigue.

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  3. Love the analogy! So fitting.

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  4. I empathize with your Fitbit battery. There are so many times I sleep all night and am not recharged by morning.

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    Replies
    1. It's amazing how it works (or doesn't work in this case)! I dream of recharging and reenergising sleep!

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