Standing up

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JukeGen

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Does anyone have any recommendations for comfortable chairs/couches or how to make them easier to get up from? I love cuddling my partner on a night watching TV but I really struggle to get up off the couch. Either he has to pull me or I have to roll onto my front, put my knees on the floor, stretch my back and then push myself up. It seems to be getting worse as the weather gets worse (Scotland 🙄) and its really starting to get me down. One of the many frustrations of something so simple suddenly becoming ridiculously hard...
 
Hello JukeGen

Standing up became an issue for me way back in 1995, so I completely understand your problem! I haven't been able to sit in a soft chair or couch for many years. Anything I sit in or on has to have a very firm seat.

The one sure thing that helped me was to raise all my seating spaces. I use high, firm cushions for my wooden chairs and office chairs that raise my body several inches. But the biggest help came when a friend raised my recliners 4 inches by nailing 2" x 4" boards to the bottom feet of the recliners. You wouldn't believe how much easier those 4 extra inches made getting out of my seat! (I also bought a 5" riser seat for the toilet. Best purchase ever!)

Also, I use a cane to help me stand. It holds my weight as I rise and keeps me steady as my legs adjust to the stiffness and pain.

But the main idea here is that you can't continue to get off your couch as you have been doing for much longer, and I mean that literally. If your fibromyalgia progresses, as it has for me & so many others, then your arm muscles will not be able to withstand your husband pulling on them because of the pain, and your leg muscles will be too stiff & possibly weakened to lift you from the floor. Even if your fibro doesn't worsen (and I certainly hope it doesn't), getting off the couch as you have been sounds way too painful, and a change is definitely in order!

We all know that there are no guarantees with fibro, but I hope these suggestions help you. After all, no one wants to give up cuddles on the couch!
 
Hey, thank you so much for your reply! I was definitely getting worried it would get worse because it is really sore when he pulls me up but we managed to pick up a recliner sofa today which is much better already but now I find it hard to close the recliner bit 🤦‍♀️ that is a minor inconvenience compared to the struggle I have been having though! Your comment about raising it is a great suggestion. My grandma had things called elephant feet on her couch which raised it so she could get up easier so I have ordered a set of them and I think I'll put a crutch down the side of the sofa as well to use as you use your cane and hopefully that will help too.

I find this forum really bittersweet; it sucks that everyone else is suffering as well but it's also kind of relieving having people who actually understand what we go through and who can offer helpful tips like yourself :)
 
As I often sit on the carpet, leaning against or twisted round towards the sofa, getting up is even more of an issue for me. Sometimes it can take a few minutes. My wife keeps wanting to help me, but I always refuse. My psychologist reminded me of the best phrase why: Use it or lose it! Why should I get help for doing everyday things, esp. when there's no time pressure, and then put aside some time for doing exactly these exercises to keep as fit as possible? So if at all possible and fibro is your main issue, I'd encourage you to not change your sofa, unless it is causing you pain to sit/lie on, but to use it as exercise equipment. If your stiffness is anything like mine (and I always a wry smile when people talk about 'morning stiffness') it increases the longer you sit/stand/lie down, so keeping it at bay and fit might mean moving around as often and much as possible.
That said the amino acid GABA has decreased my stiffness by 90% and glutamine and 1-2 other supps might help there too.
 
I am good at getting onto and up from the floor. I have made a point of making sure I keep doing it - I do it pretty much every day. As an artist, I often work on the floor and then need to stand up with something in my hands, so I have a hands-free way to get off the floor that works for me.

Sometimes when someone -- often even someone younger than I am -- says "Gee...I wish I could get up off the floor so easily", I feel like saying to them, "Well, why did you stop doing it?" Of course, I never say that. but I am convinced that 90% of people who stop being able to do that, or something else, stopped being able to do it because they stopped doing it in the first place. I keep doing things and therefore keep being able to do them.

This doesn't apply to everything, of course. And it doesn't apply to anyone 100% of the time, either. There are days I cannot get off the floor without grabbing something. If you have a compromised back, as I do, you just cannot shovel dirt to dig a hole for a tree or you are asking for big trouble. But, there are other ways to get something done - it just might take longer. One shovel full a day, maybe. Takes a lot longer, but it can be done. And with most things, if a person keeps doing it, they will continue to be able to do it even if maybe not as easily or as fast or in the same way or as many times.

A famous yoga teacher I studies with many years ago said, "Women can do anything a man can do - they may just have to find a different way to do it." I never forgot that, and I think it's true for everyone, not just for women.
I think people often stop doing something because it's not as comfortable for them to do as it used to be, or as easy. But that's when you need to keep doing it.

P.S. ---this is not a directive to people to "push through the pain", something I never advocate. But to remember that if something becomes more difficult it doesn't necessarily mean you have to give it up completely.
 
I have a hands-free way to get off the floor that works for me
Right, that is my next challenge! :unsure:🥲🤪:sneaky: :cool:
Hmm.. no problem, having "no" stiffness at the mo, and esp. if using elbows and the sofa is allowed, down is harder than up....: To be contd...
Edit: No elbows, no sofa? Howzabout one cramp in a thigh, another in a calf? Making me cheat and use ... hands... Well actually I wdnt call it cheating, it was a spontaneous act of self-defence, however dishonourable. 🤠
 
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I have experienced a lot of stiffness. This gets worse or better but affects me especially when I go to rise from sitting or lying down, and sometimes even turning in bed. It can be pretty easy to turn or amazingly hard. Rising takes effort, and the first steps I hobble, as if I were 20 years older. Yesterday I had a guest, so instead of taking it easier, I actually cooked in the evening, after going out with him for a meal for lunch, returning, getting a couple things at the grocery, returning again, and then cooking and we ate at 9pm. It took a toll, my boyfriend entertained the guest as I took pain pills and lay down for an hour or so to get settled. I can't tell what is arthritis, what is my hip problem, what is age, etc. But I guess the takeaway is the fibro magnifies whatever it is bothering me.
 
Rising takes effort, and the first steps I hobble, as if I were 20 years older
Yessss! You're the first person who's described it exactly as I experience it. This stiffness all day & night (also incl. standing for any length of time, or even cycling) is what was most dramatic for my wife to see all along, the reason for sending me to the rheums (who didn't have a clue tho), and she sings praises on my GABA/amino acids for it getting that down to rudiments now. Getting up from the floor can still take a minute, but hardly any hobbling any more.
 
Yessss! You're the first person who's described it exactly as I experience it. This stiffness all day & night (also incl. standing for any length of time, or even cycling) is what was most dramatic for my wife to see all along, the reason for sending me to the rheums (who didn't have a clue tho), and she sings praises on my GABA/amino acids for it getting that down to rudiments now. Getting up from the floor can still take a minute, but hardly any hobbling any more.
Oh my gosh, really? Someone who feels like me? Hallelujah, it may help us understand this thing we suffer. I also take gabapentin and it helps me a lot, but I have also gotten muscle spasms all over and that keeps it from attacking all my muscles. Tell me about amino acids, how did you go from hobbling to hardling hobbling? I would so love to get there one day again.
 
I also take gabapentin
Not gabapentin, much too many sfx for me: It's the original Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid I mean, which is my main supp/neurotransmitter/amino acid. Helps me in >10 symptom areas. If it helps me and we're similar there, who knows...
Amino acids: Best start with an amino acid questionnaire (e.g. Trudy Scott's) to sort out which you'd need most. But if you're up for the risk, just get the GABA supp in capsules (I make them myself now, to dose better). If your stomach isn't sensitive it's best to start it with about 125mg sublingually and increase from there. But I was lucky starting with a 750mg capsule (together with glutamine and/or theanine to balance out the increased serotonin with dopamine) that it was a good amount, as I need a lot of it, I'm taking 2g spread out over the "day", most before and after the beginning of sleep. After realizing that the remaining bladder pain it hadn't stopped is mainly in the evening, I now take a little in the afternoons and that's now gone, hope it stays that way. Glutamine is also for stiffness, but increasing it hasn't changed it, so I haven't found the 'hardly' hobbling down to 'not' yet. The difficult thing is if you overdose you get the same symptoms as you had before, which can be exasperating, the fun thing is you can start and stop immediately, they work inside of hours and the sfx are OK. (Might take a few days with slight sfx and the sfx when you overdose might take a few days to balance out again, but you can usually handle them, unless it's not for you.) (A colleague finds GABA brilliant for brain fog, my acupressurist found GABA too harsh, but did the questionnaire and found tyrosine is hers.)
 
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