Something I am surprised doesn't get mentioned very often is exercise and the potential to elevate our mood and in turn help a tiny little bit with pain relief sometimes.

Due to very serious health issues and various conditions that make exercise (let alone walking) impossible most days, I still try to follow my own sort of routine within a 21 day cycle as I have treatments every 21 days. If I feel I can start then I make the most of it. This morning for example, my pain wasn't too bad so I got out in the garden early and ended up mowing an acre of grass on my ride-on mower (and that's harder than it sounds due to undulations and edges etc.).

I don't need to use my feet much except for the brake so I make sure I have really good shoes with support and comfortable lining. Then I got out the line trimmer and trimmed around boundaries and trees or about an hour. All up I ended up doing about 3 hours work. 2 and 1/2 hours would have been better 'cause now I'm in bed eating home made soup and in a lot of pain. My ribs and back and joints and muscles all hurt more than on a normal day. They hurt then anyway.

It's been a beautiful, still "winter" day of around 25C. Can't complain about that really. We've just endured the longest summer I can ever recall but finally the rain and humidity have settled and it's so much easier to get outside.

After my treatment each 21 days, I need to rest mainly in bed for about 5 to 7 days. After that I try to do outside exercise every 2nd or 3rd day. Of course sometimes it's too painful and I can't do it.

My point really is that I really find exercise so incredible for elevating my mood. It's really, really noticeable. Hardest part is pushing through the down moods and the pain but I've learned to pick my days and some days I can and some days I can't. Down moods make us feel as if we can't do anything so I try to force myself.

I would suggest some type of strenuous exercise over anything else in my life to elevate my mood which to be honest has been pretty down for a long time now. The fact that it causes me so much pain is the problem, but for now I am finding that helping my mood is really worth it so I just try to balance the happy brain with the physical pain.

The more I do, the more I want to do and I do push myself very hard. I can see why exercise can be so addictive and I'm sorry that I can't do very much anymore due to pain however it makes it feel so great to be alive. The wonder of endorphins! Wish we could bottle that.

sorry for very long post.