#automimmune

[thatbitchery]

Ladies the trick to success is to make it quite literally impossible to fail. Make it so that failure requires effort & success is the matter of natural course. I'll say this until you get it- success isn't a question of milestones, it's a question of systems. You are where you are because your current systems support that, change it and see if nothing changes.

So if you want to look elegant and classy donate all the clothes & shoes you have that don't look elegant & classy- then how will you look dusty? Even if you wanted to look dusty, how would you do that??? When the option isn't there?? Take away the option for failure so that you must work hard to fail. If you have no sugars or processed foods in your house then you literally have to leave and pay to be unhealthy. If you only listen to calming, positive music genuinely where will constant anxiety come from. If you don't even have social media how will you get addicted to it? You have to exert effort to be. Girl if you don't even have his number how will you call him? If you focus during class how will you fail? Literally how will you fail. How will that happen? If you have no alcohol in your house how will you get drunk? You must leave and pay for it, right? If you're eating right and getting your vitamin balance in check how high are the chances for diseases? Acne? Hormonal imbalances? Weight issues? Automimmune diseases? Mood swings? Like yes it can happen but let's talk statistics, how high are the chances?

The easiest path to success is to not even give failure a chance. Like, instead of working so hard to succeed you must work hard to fail. Success, love, is a consequence of systems- a matter of natural course- you're eating right so you look and feel great- a natural consequence. A matter of rather obvious course. You're studying so you pass. Matter of course. You buy the right clothes so you just always look put together, like always. Obviously. What other choice do you have? All your friends are girlbosses so obviously you're a girlboss? Duh. Literally what other choice is there? Even if you wanted to fail the choice to isn't there, and although the chance is never zero it can be beautifully close to zero, that's the goal.

Success is a matter of systems, love. Not milestones. You set in place systems whose consequences are what you want. Like if your study system is great genuinely how will you fail?

Take away the option to easily fail, that's the goal. Set systems that have literally no choice but to get you where you want, as a natural consequence rather than goals you're trying to superficially impose. Its not milestones, it's systems. Its- habits. Routines. Systems. Make some that make failure hard to get.

Success is seamless, love. Let it be.

[pncrealty]

Today is Lupus Awareness and POP also Put On Purple Day! #Pop #LupusHasNoCure #Automimmune #Chronicilliness #Pain #BrainFog #Lupus #PutOnPurple #Awareness #Fibromyalgia #sjögrensyndrome @2sisters2lupus @marquette112 @bite_me_bitch86 #meds #tired @mellowyellow421 #MayIsLupusAwarenessMonth https://www.instagram.com/p/CdZyGNGtw2J/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[support-groups]

Summertime isn't always a time for cheer, it can be hard when you want to be happy and join in the fun, but your anxiety and/or depression is holding you back, or your eating disorder, or your fear that you might not pass or fit in, or your autoimmune disease prevents you from being out in the sun. 

While ice cream, cookouts, pool parties and barbeques all seem so quintessentially summer, let's make sure that we support those who are having a hard time during the summer months, to those who can join in the fun and those who so desperately want to. -Team SG

www.supportgroups.com

[myownjadedpieceofmind]

I've been pricing an electric wheelchair

Walking around is getting increasingly more difficult. The pain I have in my back is unbearable, and its radiating into my hips. My legs feel like cinderblocks have been tied to them. When I look down, I see the color changes happening as the blood pools in my feet.

I won't lie. I'm scared.

I'm losing quality of life with every single moment I am stuck here. I can't get out in the sun much because of what it causes my head to feel like, and I've been getting hives when sitting outside recently. There have been times where I have had to have someone lead me while walking because the sun was so bright I was blinded.

I finished the b12 injections and 2 days later my face went into puperty-aged-acne mode, so not only do I have terrible thoughts about everything, but I look terrible too. And no amount of pimple cream or acne wash fixes a vitamin breakout. Just gotta live through it.

About the tumor... see, a spinal hemangioma generally isn't an issue. UNLESS the reason for it being found is that the patient is experiencing symptoms. Which....had I not been experiencing symptoms, no one would have checked my thoracic spine. Wouldn't that just make sense that the damn thing is causing me issues?

Since 4 specialists want to ignore me, and the pain is bad enough now its causing my life to be pointless, I've been reading and researching and thumbing medical journals. And you know what?

I'm fucking terrified.

All these doctors want to do is ask me if I have anxiety and then brush off the real problems. I am in severe pain every single day and all I get to do is sit here and try to convince myself that the problems aren't actually a problem because some idiot doctors won't listen.

If they don't listen....i don't even want to think of what happens when they don't listen.

I'm so fucking scared.

[gratefulwithautoimmune]

Even if we don’t see it right away, there is always hope. Imagine all of the people in the world, right this minute, that are looking for a tiny glimmer of hope to get them through the next few minutes, the next hour, or the coming days.

When we lose hope, I have found it’s all too often because we have reached the point of helplessness. When we just don’t know what to do anymore. I have been…

[ratcorvo]

for those of you in countries where the general public is at risk of contracting the coronavirus, i, as someone who is immuno compromised, aka at the most at risk of contracting the virus, id like for everyone to know that while wearing the typical surgical/medical mask can help prevent contracting it, it rlly doesnt. surgical face masks are only used to prevent bodily fluids from entering medical professionals’ bodies during medical procedues and viruses contracted from close contact but not for preventing small particals, such as airborne viruses like the coronavirus, from entering a person’s body. to prevent yourself from contracting airborne viruses such as the coronavirus that may be hazardous to your body, please wear respirators (N95 or other types approved by ur government) (respirators seen at ur local car repair shop, etc) that are designed to be able to vent out particles such as these easily and not only that, PLEASE wash your hands regularly.

[iwannabeabuffgirl]

I just want plastic beauty

I hate myself.there i admitted it i'm not a good enough bimbo i never will be.i'm ugly with small tits i just want to be like the girls on my blog but i'm not i want an hairless body instead of being hairy,i want big fake lips and most of all i want big muscles and big fake tits.everything is in my way financially and healthwise i have an automimmune condition they tell me i can't get implants and i can't lift heavy.because of the drugs i take i can't get laser hair removal i couldn't afford these things anyway.i hate myself in my teens i thought about lifting heavy even thinking someday in my thirties or forties i would take bigger measures to build muscle i think you know what i mean but no i can't because my body is already screwed up and i can't put in the hard work i want to.for the longest time i told my family i feel like i'm in the wrong body not in gender form just that i feel like a swan in a very ugly ducklings body.i'm not good enough i'm sorry i don't know what to do i wish i could close my eyes and when i reopened them it was different that my life and appearance was all just a bad dream and that i am pretty i wish the inside me,the one i want to be was on the outside because no matter what i do i never feel like I'm myself that this thing that i am doesn't show the real me.

[queerhawkeyes]

more tests came back negative. I haven’t heard from my rheumatologist again but from what I can tell it seems like I have hypermobility, an automimmune disorder, a fucked liver, and arthritis, but the autoimmune thing is not related to the liver or arthritis judging by the test results. I have tested negative for every specific autoimmune test my rheumatologist has run, but tested positive for a general autoimmune marker that is only as high as mine in .5% of healthy people. medical mystery part 2: rheumatology.

[hot-tea-gardenparty]

Who cares enough to read this...

Nickname - I have a lot of them, but my family usually calls me 'Megs' or 'Meg-a-roo', my friends like to call me 'Princess' and my husband calls me 'Gopher'... Zodiac - Gemini Height - 177cm (5'10") Last movie I saw - Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse Last thing I googled - How to report a dangerous truck driver (I literally almost got run over by this one fucking driver this morning, also watched him speed over 75 mph in a 60 mph zone, almost hit three seperate other drivers and swerve between lanes.) Favourite musician - I really enjoy The 1975, The Killers, TVXQ!, Imogen Heap, Parade of Lights, Paperwhite and Fickle Friends Song stuck in my head - Days Gone By - Day6 Other blogs - mochiandmatcha (never actually updated this one because I got too busy with being an adult) Do I get asks? - Nope. LOL...I'm not important enough for that shit... Amount of sleep - I always try to get at least 7-8 hours or I will honestly be a zombie and unproductive as fuck Lucky number - Don't have one. What I’m wearing - Oversized multicolored knit sweater, jeans, tan ankle boots and random jewlery Dream job - Running my own tea shop and cafe. I'd love to start off with a tea cart/tea truck specializing in tea lattes and straight brews that could hopefully progress and move up into a brick-and-mortor location. Dream trip - Visiting all the castles in Europe (standing or otherwise) Favourite food - I am a foodie, so that's a difficult decision...but as of right now it would have to be Shabu Shabu (Japanese hot pot made of meat and vegetables boiled in different tasting broths.) Play any instruments? - Hell no. Languages - English and Japanese Favourite songs - There are SO MANY it would be almost impossible to decide...here are the tops songs I am listening to a lot right now: Plum - Troye Sivan Touch - Parade of Lights Days Gone By - Day6 8 Letters - Why Don't We Falling - LEON Skylines - GLADES Broken Sleep - Fickle Friends Random facts - I deal with four automimmune diseases that many people do not realize cause repeated daily discomfort and pain. I go to the doctor more often than many other people, get my blood drawn more than 8-10 times a year, have to take heavy medication to keep my inflamation down and eat a special diet to ensure my health and comfort. These diseases were the main reason I had to move back to America from Japan and I am still salty about that. I love to write, albeit I haven't sat down at my computer to do so in quite a while due to exhaustion from dealing with work and recent health issues. I have my cake decorating license. Describe yourself as aesthetic things - Late 80s-Early 90s pastels, Sailor Moon anime cell backgrounds, Lo-Fi Retro Wave, blueberry-hibiscus tea on a sunny autumn morning, riding the Shinkansen early in the morning Tagging anyone who wants to do it.

[deblala]

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/gum-disease-link-mental-health-cardiovascular-automimmune/

[cannabisrefugee-esq]

The last day of my life was sometime in February, 2013 the day before I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a progressive and incurable automimmune disease that targets the digestive tract.  As many people with Crohn’s probably know, and as none of us is allowed to think or say out loud, your life is essentially over once you get a Crohn’s diagnosis.  If not from the disease itself then from the treatments.

The disease itself is absolutely horrific and I saw it in my doctor’s eyes when she first broke the news and many times thereafter.  The first doctor in the practice to meet with me, right after diagnosing me said, “You need to get insurance immediately, if not sooner.”  I naively asked if that was because most Crohn’s patients needed surgery; she said no.  I didn’t understand what she meant but I was at the very beginning of my Crohn’s journey and just made a note of it.  I could tell that something was seriously wrong and about to get worse.  I mean, obviously.  If surgery and even repeated surgeries isn’t the worst thing in my future as a Crohn’s patient then what is?  I was already queasy from the Crohn’s related nausea but what she was saying, and not saying, unsettled me.

The second doctor in the practice to meet with me said, “You are an attorney, you are educated, intelligent and have research skills.  You should research this disease and all the treatments available to you.”  I didn’t know what he meant. After meeting with him for several follow-up appointments, when we had developed what I felt was a mutual professional respect, I considered telling him I would be at Starbucks later that evening if there was something he needed to tell me away from the office and away from prying eyes.  What did he mean and why couldn’t he just tell me about all the available treatments himself?  At the time, the research I had done indicated that the conventional treatments for Crohn’s don’t work much; that Crohn’s patients have an extremely low quality of life; and the best “alternative” treatment available was a so-called elemental diet, an enteric feed called Vivonex, a sickly looking yellow fluid that’s meant to be taken through a feeding tube but you can drink it straight if you can stomach it.  I bought several months’ worth at about a thousand dollars a month and tried my best.  It didn’t work.  And despite also taking the prescribed treatments including Pentasa, Entocort and Prednisone, I was getting steadily worse.

I was reading online Crohn’s forums and reading about patients who had been living with Crohn’s disease for decades, as well as the recently diagnosed, and the absolute hell they had been going through with medications, procedures and repeated surgeries that did nothing but make them feel worse in the end.  No pun intended.  Some people found success with different treatments only to find their effectiveness short-lived.  Normally I would concede that those patients who were satisfied with their treatments and with their quality of life would be out living their lives and not commiserating on an online forum, and therefore I would take the published accounts with a grain of salt.  But in this case I noticed a pattern: many of the patients writing on the forums had been getting some relief from their treatments for a time but the treatments eventually failed.  What I was reading were both the treatment failures and the treatment successes in that sense.  Where are the Crohn’s patients who respond well to the treatments forever and don’t feel traumatized, stigmatized, disabled, or have other reasons to publicly talk about it?  I have no idea.  I have never met one.  I understand that they are probably out there somewhere but the truth is, even they won’t know what group they themselves fall into until they die.  Just because they are getting relief from their symptoms right now means nothing.

Eventually, I fell down the rabbit hole of researching medical cannabis for various conditions, including Crohn’s.  Is this what my second doctor had been referring to when he told me to research what was out there?  Cannabis was still illegal in my home state, not to mention outside the “official” accepted standard of care for Crohn’s, so that could’ve easily been what he meant and he just couldn’t legally say it. After reading and viewing hundreds of blog posts, medical journal articles, and YouTube videos on cannabis and Crohn’s, I suspected it was.  I had been treating with prescription medications for 2 years and was feeling my health, energy and life slipping away.  I was getting worse and at a terrifying pace.  I had no idea what was in store for me and I had no idea it was even possible to be that sick — I had always assumed that there was some threshold of pain and suffering, some Agony Index at the pinnacle of which you would simply die.  Essentially, I had always assumed that something this relentlessly painful would be fatal.  I started to panic as I understood that it just might be possible to be this sick, or even sicker, indefinitely, and that at some point I would probably lose my mind from the pain.  What happened next seems a blur.

My Pentasa wasn’t working anymore and the next course of action was to get on an infusion treatment that basically gives you AIDS: it destroys your immune system.  You get all the opportunistic infections of an AIDS patient including thrush, pneumonia, and even cancer as so-called side-effects of the medication. Meanwhile, Crohn’s itself is not curable and is progressive, meaning that it never goes away and only gets worse.  So then, looking down that road, you have Crohn’s, AIDS, and cancer to contend with and all that comes with each condition including more treatment, more side-effects and more opportunities for medical accidents, treatment failures and complications up to and including death.  I suspect that actor Shannen Doherty took this treatment for her well-known case of Crohn’s and that the Crohn’s medication caused her cancer in the end.  I suspect the same thing happened to my fitness trainer who had an autoimmune disease and ended up with cancer too.  I began to see my own future.  And I was so desperate to have even a temporary respite from the agony of Crohn’s I was going to take the medication anyway.  I was tested for tuberculosis — a precondition to having your immune system decimated because any active infection at that point can kill you — and I was going to start the infusion treatments as soon as possible.  Everything up to this point had been either free samples of medication or self-pay and I was prepared to pay additional thousands of dollars if it meant I would find some relief — the infusions alone were to be something like $4,000 each, to be repeated every 8 weeks.

In the meantime, I had taken the first doctor’s advice and applied for health insurance.  Because I had not worked as an attorney for about 4 years by then and had started a small business that was compatible with my new and worsening disability I applied as an uninsured person through Obamacare which placed me on Medicaid due to my small income.   The first thing Medicaid did was deny the Crohn’s medicine I was already on (Pentasa, which didn’t work much anyway if at all) and then my doctors fired me because they didn’t take Medicaid.  Without a doctor, any plans for the infusions were put on indefinite hold.  At that point, because I had practiced benefits and anti-poverty law for years, I knew where I was headed: in and out of the hospital and fighting with Medicaid to approve maddeningly ineffective medicines and treatments and brutal, gravely dangerous ones, all of whose known side effects could be just as bad as if not worse than the disease itself, and where even a favorable resolution to the Medicaid issue would easily take months if not years to achieve.  All the while suffering with the hellish, unrelenting agony of un- and undertreated Crohn’s.  I knew what I had to do.

I packed one suitcase and made a reservation at a vacation rental property in a cannabis-friendly state where I had planned to stay for 2 months and treat with medical cannabis.  I had hoped that I would get better and go home but it’s now been 3 years and I am still here.  I have gotten significant pain relief and improvement in my Crohn’s symptoms which I consider a hard-won and unlikely personal success.   Nothing can diminish that and I am immensely grateful to have gotten some relief.  But now I have spent my life savings, liquidated my assets, and maxed out and destroyed my credit, and although I have worked on my small business as best I could, almost everything is gone. I will soon be facing homelessness as a chronically ill cannabis refugee.  Because I have refused Western medical treatments for my illness I am not eligible for disability-based benefits.  My attempt to “help myself” financially by starting a small business has complicated my finances such that I am not eligible for any need-based benefits at all, or anytime soon.

Not knowing what else to do, and wishing to document my experiences, I have started this blog.  It is intended to be a very short-term project where I will record my insights and what I have learned from my relatively new station as a chronically ill person in the context of Western patriarchal and capitalist medicine, and my resistance to it.  I hope to absolutely excoriate Western medicine’s treatment of Crohn’s and other serious illness; to rail against the disability- and income-based benefits structure where so many sick, injured and otherwise vulnerable people fall through the cracks; to describe my treatment successes and failures, including my treatment with medical marijuana (also known as medical cannabis, medical pot, or MMJ); to describe the crushing disappointment and sorrow I have experienced through family and friends’ failure or willful refusal to really “get” what Crohn’s is all about, what Crohn’s patients go through and how disabling Crohn’s can be; and hopefully to find a solution to the untenable situation in which I currently find myself.  At the very least, I will find some comfort knowing that I have spoken the truth aloud about my experience as a Crohn’s patient disaffected with Western patriarchal and capitalist medicine; as a cannabis refugee; and as an attorney who in the end, may be unable to help even myself successfully navigate the social, legal and financial hardships of a serious chronic illness.

To all Crohn’s patients — and all those seriously ill and disabled — who may find themselves reading here, I offer my empathy for you and your condition, my understanding of your plight, and my sincerest hope that you will find some comfort somewhere, whether through successful traditional or alternative treatment, miraculous or spontaneous remission, or simply by reading these words and the words of other truth-tellers online and off.  To Crohn’s patients specifically, I have received tremendous comfort and knowledge from reading your testimonies on online support forums and your truth-telling has soothed my soul and enriched my mind.  I hope to return the favor by recording my truths here, especially those that are taboo, contrary, uncomfortable, and rarely addressed.  Please feel free to comment here or contact me using the contact form at the top of the page.  I can’t promise I will respond, but know that I will read your words, and that I feel you.  I really, really feel you.

[gratefulwithautoimmune]

What really constitutes being a Father?

I was born in the most obscure circumstances possible. My biological father was abusive in every way possible from the time I was just a toddler until I was nine-years-old. My parents divorced at that time and for a short time my three siblings and I  lived with my mother. One day, without any forewarning  my siblings and I were taken away from our mother and placed in foster care. Although we…

[stellaecielo]

I gotta stop googling automimmune conditions when im having a bad day cause i always end up like this after:

[h2herbs-blog]

16 Tips to Self Improvement with Autoimmune Disorders

See a professional about your symptoms. I saw an immunologist/allergist who was finally able to help pin-point my almost decade long search for answers to my reactions to food.  Don’t delay. Call today.

2 Read all you can about your autoimmune disorder and comorbidities

3.Read Blogs about your autoimmune disorder.

4.  Wake Up Early. Not so you can have enough time to prepare a low automimmune breakfast, so you can put your day in order without being rushed. Waking up early (say, 5-6am) has been acknowledged by many (Anthony Robbins, Robin Sharma, among other self-help gurus) to improve your productivity and your quality of life.

5. Excercise. Work out 3x a week for at least 30 minutes. Whether that means going on the treadmill in your bedroom that is currently holding clothes or going out for a jog or signing up for a yoga class, get yourself moving! It is important to be in physical health as much as mental and allergic health.

6. Stay focused with lists. I love my lists. I feel accomplished when I have one and can check things off as I go. This is especially important to use in the  grocery store when shopping. You want to make sure you don’t buy histamine laden food and end up with a reaction.

7. Cut back on social media. This is harder than it sounds, but when you have your life in your phone or other electronic device, you miss out on so much going on around you. Limit yourself to a time first thing in the morning and a few hours before bed. Unless you have a food blog, no one is going to miss your update about what you ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner. :)

8. Set Big Goals.  Stretch beyond your normal capacity and go for it! Maybe just going on the low nickel diet is your big goal. That’s great! Find one that, for you, is a challenge, and rise to the occasion. You will feel great when you get it!

9. Meditate.  Take 20-30 minutes a day to center yourself and be calm. Use an app for guided meditation if you must. It will help keep you on track, mindful and clearly focused on what is important.

10. Avoid negative people.  This means in person and online. If someone is regularly a Negative Nellie in your life, remove them as much as possible. It is isn’t possible to remove them completely from your life, learn how to put down boundaries to alleviate the negativity from your life. Only plants grow among dung.

11. Find people who inspire you.  Maybe that is a public speaker, a friend, a classmate. Find people who make you want to be a better person and talk with them. Find out their secrets to personal success. Listen to their stories and take what you can and incorporate it into your life.

12. Let go of the past. Let go of wanting what is no longer possible. That may mean a relationship, a job or even a piece of chocolate cake. Let it go. There are other flavors out there in the world. Explore other cakes such as pink champagne or vanilla with fresh strawberry icing. Letting go of what was makes room for new experiences.

13. Show kindness to those around you.  Remember the “Golden Rule:”  Practice what you preach? Think before you speak. If the words are not loving, helpful, gentle and only about you hold your tongue. Words can cut deeper than a sword. Only speak words of love, helpfulness when asked, gentleness and listen with the intent to understand.

14.  Take a break. Give yourself a break. Talk to yourself with loving words. What we tell ourselves becomes our truth. What we tell our children becomes their’s. Speak only to yourself in words of love. If you hear negative thoughts coming in, stop yourself and remind yourself to give yourself a break. No one is perfect.

15. Quit a bad habit.  Do you comfort eat? Slouch? Bite your nails?  Smoke? Run late for everything? Work on stopping that habit. You can do it!

16. Invest time into personal growth.  Learning a new way of being is difficult. Learning a new lifestyle is challenging. Invest time in yourself to allow for growth. Educate yourself on your autoimmune disorder. Read books about people who have risen through adversity. We are all responsible for our own self-growth - not our mom, our dad, our partner, our children—just us. Commit to yourself to begin a new life full of personal growth. Do one or two small changes a day, in time, those changes will have a snowball effect and one day soon become the reality of the change you wished for.

Every moment, of every day, we are given a choice to repeat the past or start anew.

Which do you chose?

[crazywritergurl]

Automimmune disease ( s ) come with many faces / many masks. Two people with the same chronic illness will have varying levels of symptoms and varying responses to therapy. A N D at the end of the day. Its okay. To say out loud for the universe to hear Doctors don’t know everything.

Today Costochondritis of the sternum.

[themetaphorgirl]

Hey! March is Automimmune Disease Awareness Month! A year ago this month I asked my doctor if we could test my thyroid- a lot of my symptoms seemed like they could be linked to thyroid problems and it hadn’t been tested before so I felt like it couldn’t hurt. Two days later I got a call that my medication was waiting for me at the pharmacy and I needed to start taking it immediately. Turns out I have hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. For the longest time I though everything I was experiencing was normal- I was exhausted all the time because my job was super physical and I was working on two or three shows at once, my hair was falling out from stress, I was gaining weight because of bad eating (and more stress), I couldn’t remember lines and choreography because I was tired (and even more stress). The past year has been a cycle of bloodwork, medication adjustments, and lifestyle changes, but things are finally starting to level out. I got tested because of a YouTube video (thank you, @kathryn_morgan) and if you think that something may be wrong, don’t be afraid to ask your doctor! https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu6mgBznS7n/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qsm35gfr65br