Chronic Illness & Disability
$hitty to be Disabled
It was one of those days when it was $hitty to be disabled. Not because I thought it was $hitty but because others just didn’t want to understand what it’s...
An Important Pain Recognition for Fibromyalgia Sufferers
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/12/magazine/chronic-pain.html?smid=url-share
Please Don’t Do Me Any Favors
I saw the ad somewhere and quickly wrote down the information. Horse Back Riding and a phone number. It took a month for me to start texting and asking...
Coping with the Holidays
The overall secret sauce to great holidays is planning. I want to say that there are some things that you can do and I am sure that there are. I also want to...
How American Healthcare Gets it Wrong
Birate Doctoral by Wikimedia Commons This morning I watched a show about Israel’s healthcare system having found (after much experimentation) an effective...
20 June 2024 My Diagnostic Nightmare
To the Emergency Department Management Team: I want you to know that I came to the Emergency Department because I desperately need a diagnosis to explain my...
Grieving my Body in Illness
I learned to grieve early. But not about me. I learned to grieve about relationships, losing them. And the worst, losing people I loved. Sometimes, as...
And Then I Was Done
Mothering Addiction And You’re so Angry With Me Why? You could have asked me any question, at any time. You didn’t. Instead, you used the time to attack, to...
Rejection is not my Sadness
NGC1097 by ERIS Too much of my life in sadness. Living my life in fear of having sadness, running from one sadness to the next. There is this sadness that...
Life Energy and Illness
February 16, 2024 I often wonder that our life energy is a finite resource. You are born with an amount of energy, and you cannot have more, no matter how you...
The Fibro Flare and Me
Take the Hint I knew something was wrong because my fibromyalgia was acting up. Randomly a touch became torture because of the pain that bloomed insistent...
Secrets of Fibromyalgia
Sometimes, I am standing at the sink. I may be brushing my teeth or washing up, but I am struck by the pain I feel. That pain makes it impossible for me to...
The Source Matters
I'm not sure why, but the source of an injury can dictate mood and feelings afterwards. So yesterday, at my usual Renal Pharm scan, I got into a conversation...
The Hospital is an Awful Experience.Full Stop
Between Acute Pain, Acute Ignorance and the Opiate Death Crisis Random thoughts after surgery: It was so surreal that I lost my time and space in the...
Hiding Toilet Paper from my Husband
Photo by visuals on Unsplash This is how it started: My disease (fibromyalgia) did me in. Over time, it’s gotten worse and my ability to participate (in...
Disability Acceptance Continued
One More Disability Disappointment I’m young! Accepting my disability has been a challenge. Sometimes, I am vastly miserable under the weight of the pain of...
To Honor my Disability
I Require that my disability is honored. And yet, you get angry with me because "I can’t". Your able-bodied self can’t imagine being disabled. You think I...
That Day; Deep in the Pain
One of those days I spent most of my time, googling the pain in my body parts. I’m shuffling around the house, my feet in large socks. The intermittent pain...
Love is Not Enough
All through this week, I've been getting the signal that loving people is not enough to make my relationships what I want them to be. My daughter left our...
Where the Pain Goes
My friend's article and today inspired me: Sometimes the pain is just a hum in the background of my experience. I can distract myself from it. I can do chores...
How to be Sick and/or Disabled
Josh Appel, Unsplash It’s daunting if you are new to poor health. We healthy ones vastly take advantage of our health. We never give it a thought that we wake...
Repeating, Wondering, Turning, Getting & Desiring
I am constantly repeating myself to doctors. I'm explaining my medication and my health goals. Doctors don't listen very well. I am wondering why doctors...
Chronic illness: Things I learned and things I know
via Chronic illness: Things I learned and things I know I haven't been any good at acceptance. I haven't even been able to say that I can see my...