{"id":1801,"date":"2015-09-05T22:29:42","date_gmt":"2015-09-05T22:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2015-09-03T22:49:27","modified_gmt":"2015-09-03T22:49:27","slug":"chronic-pain-when-your-power-is-gone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/chronic-pain-when-your-power-is-gone.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Pain: When Your Power is Gone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of Pixomar\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My much-used and appreciated tablet died yesterday. Or, at least, it seemed to die. One second, I was opening an app, the next, the screen went black, and I couldn’t get in or out of anything, tablet, app, or otherwise.<\/p>\n

Of course, my first reaction was, “Oh, no! I’ll have to get another tablet!” This conjured up thoughts (and fears) of having to upgrade my ‘tablet experience,’ reload apps and data, and figure out what books belonged where. Sigh!<\/p>\n

But then, I wondered, “Is it really dead? Or, did I accidentally do something to make it ‘sleep?'”<\/p>\n

I decided to seek a second opinion. So, today, I toted the tablet down to the wise young men at the Samsung store.<\/p>\n

“Can you help me?” I asked. “I think my tablet’s dead, but I’m not sure.”<\/p>\n

One of the wise workers looked, looked again, put a finger on the power button, held it there for quite awhile, then set the table down on the desk. In a flash, the screen lit up and the familiar boot graphics appeared!<\/p>\n

“It’s alive!” I cried (well, said, joyfully). \u00a0“What was wrong with it?”<\/p>\n

“Could be the app you tried to open is corrupted and it locked up the tablet. If this happens, hold the power button down for several seconds. This drains the power and reboots the tablet operating system.”<\/p>\n

Very happy, I thanked the young man profusely, popped my tablet into my purse and hurried home.<\/p>\n

Home…Where it dawned on me that life with chronic pain is much like what I just went through with my tablet. \u00a0I’ve just been through a very painful period, especially with neck and back spasms and arthritis. It’s been so very painful that I’ve felt zapped of energy, drive and, yes, power. But this turned out to be a good thing because in this instance, I took my own oft-repeated advice that, “When you feel most burdened with chronic pain, sometimes the best thing you can do is resolve to rest until you can ‘reboot’ your tired self.”<\/p>\n

This is exactly what I did over the past few days – gently going through exercises and range of motion to encourage movement, but also encourage destressing. And, it worked! Like my tablet, which had been victim of a terrible app, my body responded well to a period of rest and a reboot.<\/p>\n

And, now, we’re both humming along once again!<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My much-used and appreciated tablet died yesterday. Or, at least, it seemed to die. One second, I was opening an app, the next, the screen went black, and I couldn’t get in or out of anything, tablet, app, or otherwise. Of course, my first reaction was, “Oh, no! I’ll have to get another tablet!” This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1242,4,1047,578,379,1420,1421],"tags":[44,1193,30,1902,1901,332],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-lupus-2","category-pain-2","category-take-some-time-to-rest","tag-chronic-pain","tag-feeling-powerless","tag-pain","tag-reboot-health","tag-rebooting-our-bodies","tag-rest"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Pain: When Your Power is Gone - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/chronic-pain-when-your-power-is-gone.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Pain: When Your Power is Gone - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My much-used and appreciated tablet died yesterday. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1802,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}