#chronic pain discussion

[buried-in-autumn-leaves]

As a fanfic writer, I've always faced more judgement for headcanons that involve making characters disabled than ones that make them queer.

Both of these are matters of projection for me, yet one is always seen as just a touch too far for people to handle.

Disabled people exist. Queer disabled people exist. Chronically ill people exist. Diabled people are not required to ignore their existence when it comes to media. They deserve to be seen just as much as able-bodied queer people do.

If seeing disabled people in media makes you uncomfortable, I can only imagine how you might treat disabled people in real life.

[britcision]

Regular reminder that sudden and severe weight loss is a pretty serious sign that something is very, very wrong

[cane-goth]

Are there any like.. idk studies? That look at the permanent effect chronic pain has on the brain?

Because i feel like even if i was magically cured and woke up tomorrow with 0 pain and never had it again, I would still for the rest of my life have issues with regulating my emotions, seeing things rationally, being sociable, etc etc etc.

If you took a person and inflicted non-stop pain on them for years on end and the only time they could possibly take a break was to choose between the pain or taking drugs, that would be considered literal torture and they’d have severe trauma and so many mental issues for the remainder of their life.

But my body being in 24/7 pain that stops me from functioning unless i take pain killers so strong they make me high is just life and I’m expected to get on with it.

I really wanna know what kind of mental toll years of chronic pain, especially in cases like mine where the chronic pain started before I even hit puberty and shaped my entire development.

[worstwolvie]

logan and wade helping each other deal w their chronic pain <3

[james-p-sullivan]

I really think we need to start talking about the stigma around hysterectomies and their place in the treatment for the symptoms of endometriosis.

Something I see often is the phrase 'hysterectomies don't cure endometriosis', which is very true, but do you know what a hysterectomy can cure?

Pain.

And you know the pain I'm talking about. The gnawing, all encompassing agony that surrounds our entire lives. The one that keeps you from going back to school, or uses up all of your sick days and vacation time from work combined, the one that leaves you dry heaving for hours until you pass out on the bathroom floor. That pain. There's truly no describing what it's like until you're living it.

And I cannot describe to you how free I feel knowing I will never have to suffer through that ever again.

If we continue to talk about our pain journeys we can end the stigma against hysterectomies. It will never be a cure-all, but remember that you are not a baby machine, you are a human being who deserves to live pain free. And I'm telling you, it's possible.

[i-am-simply-here]

Me trying and failing to explain to my boss why I think people with a disabled placard/parking thing (what are they called actually?) should be able to park in the parking lot at the nature reserve in town for free because I am struggling to find the words and it just kind of sounds like I'm whining about having to pay $10 to park in the reserve

[autistic-sidestep]

someone remind me to write up my fh disability theory reading meta at some point

[iliveinprocrasti-nationn]

physically disabled people: i love us physically disabled people

other people for some reason: what about everyone else? you don’t love everyone else? you could have just said disabled people. or just people. you’re excluding any non-physically disabled people. why are you promoting exclusion? i’m a bastion of inclusion and yet people are attacking me for it. if physically disabled people have their own spaces or positivity posts it’s because they’re ableist to everyone else and no other reason. if physically disabled people ever uplift themselves and not everyone else too it’s because they’re hateful

[aro-culture-is]

quick note - this blog is gonna be sparse again for at least this week. trying new medications and tbh initial side effects are not super pleasant + actual effects build up. as a result: currently as if unmedicated for mental health, with anxiety+ side effect, extra fatigue, dizziness, and fatigue. it's uh, sure something.

totally recognize that most of y'all know we're absent at times due to health things, just wanted to give a heads up that this one is at least anticipated.

[dashing-hyphen]

Important Doctor Appointment Today. Wish me luck!

[itsbansheebitch]

People who go on and on about how AI art is an accessibility tool are the ones you can 100% GUARANTEE don't follow or know any disabled artists.

There are artists without hands that hold paint brushes with their feet, their are blind people who sculpt, there are people with chronic pain that have their own break schedules, etc.

But you know what AI art generators do? They steal from disabled artists. They dehumanize them and then claim they're making a tool to help them. They see you as a "style" not a person.

Would it be too far to say that the rise of AI art has only made our consumer culture worse and made A LOT of people think they are entitled to someone else's work just because it's "available"? I'll let you decide.

[arctic-hands]

Time and distance heals things I guess. My parents got into an abusive fight with me after i took markers and pens to most of my clothes in middle school to scribble doodles and social justice messages (most prominently, Save Darfur–which really needs to be a rallying cry again given that the genocide has kicked up again as the Sudanese civil war rages). They were worried I'd look "unpresentable" in my massively oversized boy graphic tees and baggy jeans held up only by the grace of God (this was all by choice btw, i had and have always despised tight clothing and by middle school I had shunned girl clothes all together). But now at 31 I make mention of writing messages in sharpie on new t-shirts and my mom thinks it's cool and my dad offered to buy me proper fabric markers (I declined bc the cheap shirts will prolly wear out before the sharpies fade anyway). Go figure

[ink-asunder]

Having demand avoidance in a medical setting is literally hell. Like, patient autonomy is already absolute ass. It's only made worse when doctors CONSISTENTLY tell you what to do and act like you HAVE to do it instead of consulting with you first like normal fucking people.

[disgruntled-lifeform]

Question for my fellow chronic back pain sufferers:

I went to the doctor today to get my results for my knee and lower back scans and surprise, surprise, there was nothing showing on the results that would indicate why I'm in pain.

Botox injections for my back pain was suggested and my knee-jerk(ha!) reaction was "nope".

It sounds scary af to go for needles every 2-3 months and have them stab somewhere that is tender already. Not to mention how unnerving the word Botox is to me...

Have you ever done the injections and what was your experience with it? My doctor gave little to no info and it felt like pulling teeth to even get this far so any input would be better than me falling down a search engine hole

[hylianengineer]

I waffled back and forth about whether my mystery pain is totally fine and not a big deal vs a massive, infuriating pain in my ass that makes me want to cry. The latter perspective is supported by the sheer amount of vent-y fanfic I've written about it.

Does this solve any problems? No, but sometimes you gotta scream into the void.

Will I ever get over my medical anxiety long enough to ask a doctor why the fuck my everything hurts sometimes? God only knows. Given the past 5 years of failing to do that, I don't think my odds are great. Also, what's the point? I've got a guess about what it is - fibromyalgia, the same thing my mom has, and it's really not very treatable. If a doctor were to suggest half of the common treatment options to me, I would want to bite them (I wouldn't bite them, but I'd want to). Exercise is the main one and I think it's stupid because yes the evidence says it improves quality of life but it does NOT say it improves pain, and doesn't exercise improve quality of life for everyone? How is that fibro specific? Either explain that or bite me.

I SHOULD talk to a doctor, if for no other reason than to rule out the potentially nastier and/or more treatable illnesses with similar symptoms, but also? It's been five years. If it were gonna kill me I think it'd've done it by now. I don't need some entitled doctor telling me this is a depression symptom (VERY common comorbidity with fibro anyways), or that I need to exercise more (I might actually start screaming), or that I should try yoga (again. screaming.). The most likely outcome here is frustration, anger, emotional trauma, and zero improvement of my symptoms. I'm far more likely to suffer from asking for help than I am to actually GET help. If it's what I think it is, there isn't much of any help to be had. And that's assuming I get a better answer than: "it's in your head" or "I don't know and I don't care."

Chronic illness and medial trauma: a fantastically horrible combination. Common side effects include despair and overwhelming rage.

[walleffect]

about me:

You may call me Abby!

I'm 21 years old.

I use she/her pronouns.

I'm bi and (probably) ace, but I don't care much for labels online.

When I'm not online, my interests include reading, baking, painting & sketching, writing, and going on walks.

I'm a huge coffee nerd, and my favourite tea is either a good masala chai or earl grey.

This is just a fun fact: my username is a reference to research I've done in neutron physics! Please feel free to ask me more if you're curious, although this isn't going to be a physics blog.

topics on this blog:

Chronic pain and all of the medical and non-medical things that make it annoying to deal with.

How mental illness affects my life, specifically dealing with my history of severe depressive episodes.

A documentation of what my journey to accepting and treating my health issues has looked like.

The occasional opinion post about the changes I would like to see in healthcare, society's views on chronic illness, and how online communities sometimes get too carried away.

disclaimers and additional info!

I'm not a medical professional! While I enjoy learning about medicine, I do so very much as a hobby and usually focus on my specific issues: please don't put too much weight in my words.

I am not planning on being a discourse blog, however: I have some pretty strong opinions on how some communities have a tendency to misunderstand the purpose of a medical diagnosis and perpetuate misinformation under the label of being pro-self dx- while I wouldn't consider myself anti-self dx, I think it's safe to say that some people have gotten a little carried away.

Following from my last point, I strongly believe that there are very, very few- if any- situations that are black-and-white. I try not to label my stances as anti-xyz or pro-xyz, but I will often use those tags.

I will be using the block button liberally, don't be rude, and follow along if you'd like :)