#fibro problems

[fibromyalgicaf]

[ID: a screenshot of a post by @theinvisible81 (display name is Riley): "When one 'beats' Illness we applaud their strength When one dies from Illness we mourn their death When one has #ChronicIlIness, we blame their lack of willpower to make themselves better. Their loss is never mourned, their daily fight never applauded" /end ID]

Iykyk

[fibromyalgicaf]

I often explain fibromyalgia to people as a chronic pain condition and, because of time restrictions and/or people not wanting to dwell on 'negativity', that's often all I get to say. But the pain isn't the only thing that's chronic...

The fatigue is chronic (there is not a single day that I have a normal amount of energy; there's just a spectrum that runs from very tired and bleh down to an extreme fatigue that is so debilitating, I feel that it's rooted in my soul).

The brain fog is chronic (my words get jumbled and my memory, concentration, and my ability to read are all affected. Some days I can't read to the childling. Some days all I can do is scroll Reddit looking at cute animals.)

My feet are chronically cold (it has to be a very hot day for them to not feel frozen).

The sleep issues are chronic (despite my fatigue, most nights I experience insomnia, and other sleep disturbances join in regularly).

And then there's the collection of slightly less frequent symptoms that are always hanging around backstage waiting for a reprise. Things like my skin being extra sensitive so that even a light touch feels painful, numbness and tingling in my arms and legs, sensitivity to light and noise, gastro issues, and dizziness.

Basically, chronic illness is fucking awful and it's so much more than you see or get told.

Why am I sharing this? I started writing this just as a vent, because the chronic illness life can be shit. But also...

If you don't have a chronic illness, I'm sharing this to give you a bit more insight into what we actually experience on a daily basis. Maybe there's someone in your life who has given you a brief explanation of their illness; I guarantee there's so much more to their story.

And if you do live with a chronic illness, I'm sharing this to remind you that we often focus on the 'big' symptoms (either what affects us most or just the symptoms that are seen as the defining feature of our illness). And the problem with that is that it's then so easy to discount our feelings and slip into self-gaslighting. We deal with a lot; make sure you acknowledge that and give yourself credit 🫶

[stars-and-branches]

Chronic pain pisses me off cause I'm not even incapacitated for like a cool or badass reason instead my body is throwing the world's biggest temper tantrum because it's raining outside

[justsomerandomgay]

something that isn’t talked about enough with chronic illness is knowing that going to your appointments and doing your exercises and all that will help but being in too much pain or too fatigued to go, so your just stuck in this constant cycle of knowing what you need to do to get better but not being able to do it because your sick

[m0thmancore]

the thing that drives me crazy about fibromyalgia is trying to explain it to people. yes i am in pain all the time. no i didn't do anything to get hurt. no it will almost definitely never go away entirely. no i don't know what caused it.

"so you're just going to be on pills your whole life" if the pills keep working, yeah, probably! i don't like being in pain!

[jomasays]

“I want to live, not just survive”.

[endometriosismemes]

[gloomysilvia]

"being tired all the time is not an aesthetic"

me who's chronically ill and still tries to romanticize life:

my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined

[spookietrex]

I hate the look on able-bodied people's faces when you can't do a thing that you could do the day before. The look of disappointment, confusion, the "Oh but you could do it before. Are you SURE you can't do it?" Like yes, Brenda, I'm sure that I am in too much pain to function/move from my bed right now so going for a walk when I could move 50 feet yesterday without my cane IS too much.

[cinnabadgr]

[satellite-runner]

it eats away at me

[fibromyalgicaf]

[stars-and-branches]

Maybe THIS dose of ibuprofen will be the one that fixes me

[spoonie-on-wheels86]

[justsomerandomgay]

i remember being ten years old and wishing to die rather than experience the pain i was in yet still my parents and my doctors didn’t believe me. sometimes it just hits me. that wasn’t a normal experience for a ten year old, was it?

[chaoticace2005]

Greetings, I would like to wish chronic pain a very unhappy “fuck you.”