What Fibromyalgia Feels Like

Sorry I've been away.  This year has been a rollercoaster for me -- adjusting to a new, chronic diagnosis, my marriage falling apart (divorce will be final in November), having to move twice -- I'm a mess.  But I came up with a little something that might help you understand Fibromyalgia a bit better than words.  I'll get to the words later, but for now, I give you a novel in pictures.

Sorry, I couldn't figure a way to collapse them into a thumbnail gallery.  It may be as simple as getting a Picasa or Tumblr and linking from there, but as most every post relates to FMS on this page, I just don't have the energy or will to do that right now.

Let me know what you think.

J

Fibromyalgia Awareness Day

Objective:  National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day aims to increase awareness of FM and provide support to those coping with the illness.

May 12 is National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day, a time to increase awareness of this chronic and life-altering disorder by educating the general public, healthcare professionals, government officials, and legislative bodies.

For more information and to join up, visit the Bloggers Unite FMS Awareness Page.

NFMCPA

A Change Coming and My Last Pack of Cigarettes

Watch for a change coming to my blog this month.  May 12th is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day, and I'm going to update my blog accordingly. On that note, check out the following blog.  It is invaluable, inspirational, and informative.  The author is the survivor of multiple chronic illnesses, and people like her make the world go 'round for people like me:

The ICI Experience


And now, onto the blog....

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I posted this over on the Men With Fibro forums, but thought it'd be nice to post it here, too.


My Last Pack of Cigarettes


I've always been a bit of a sensualist.  Not to say I'm a hedonist -- far from it.  I was raised on the straight and narrow, and didn't even have my first drink or cigarette until after I was 21.


But I do enjoy the five senses, and all the pleasure they can bring.  It can be enjoy and viewed as a sacred thing if properly restrained and balanced.  Ah, I must always strive for balance...

Sorry, I'm foggy today, so I'm rambling.

Whether it be cigarettes, beer, wine, liquor -- whatever -- I enjoy it.  I like seeing what kind of tobacco it is, where it was grown, how it was packed, etc.  With beer, what are the ingredients?  Where were they grown, etc etc.  You get the idea.  I never enjoyed the idea of drinking to get drunk -- I've only gotten shit-faced a couple times in my life, and even then it was more of a social experiment than anything (My friends call me Egon) -- but rather, I enjoy eating, smoking, drinking, etc, for the art of it.  For the pleasure of it.  

-less and -ful

Author's edit:  I added a comment below.  In typical foggy fashion, I sorta forgot to mention what spurred this post on in the first place.  Please read and commiserate.

The past 24 hours for me have contained many words with both -less and -ful as their suffix.  A random smattering, as pulled from my fibrofog-addled brain may go something like:

Worth-less
Use-less
Pain-ful
Hope-less
Hope-ful
End-less

....other things start to creep in like, "I can't move," to, "Am I going to have to start the fight for disability at 28 years old?"

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- or in my case, a limp.

Perhaps it's fitting that my first blog post here should be on a day when I had to leave work early because of a massive pain flare, accompanied by a massive, painful IBS flare.  One of the goals of this blog will be to share anecdotal knowledge of what it's like to live with fibromyalgia, as well as factual knowledge of what we know about the disease.