While taking Nonverbal Communications, our first assignment was to review a scholarly article. Upon reading through our list of choices one caught my eye right away. The title: "How Do We Communicate Pain? A systematic Analysis of the Semantic Contribution of Co-Speech Gestures in … [Read more...]
My experience with chronic illnesses covers several different illness.
I hope that much of what I share on this blog can be helpful to anyone living with (or without) any chronic illness. However, my experience and my posts tend to be geared towards fibromyalgia, endometriosis, migraines, and IBS and my experience with those illnesses.
In addition to sharing my personal experience, I also try to share medical studies and general information pertaining to living with these specific illnesses.
Check out the posts below for information on the variety of chronic illnesses that I cover here, including:
10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Say “Yes”
Saying yes is easy, and some of us say it way too often. Whether or not you live with chronic illness, it's important to learn how to say no. Often we say yes without even thinking about it, we don't think about the opportunity costs of saying yes and how saying yes to one thing always … [Read more...]
Coming Out of the Chronic Illness Closet
Being open about your chronic illness can often be as difficult as coming out of the closet about your sexuality. In both cases, you rightfully worry that you will be judged, that you won't be accepted, and that opportunities may be taken away from you. Chronic Mom shared a great post about … [Read more...]
5 Tips for Handling Toxic Relationships
We all have people around us that give both positive and negative energy. Some take any energy they can find and absorb it into themselves. These relationships can become toxic, especially when you are already dealing with limited energy. Thankfully, while there are several types of negative … [Read more...]
9 reasons your health may not be improving
Sometimes without really knowing it we are doing things that are holding us back and prevent us from feeling better. We could be improving but we don't because we make specific choices, often without realizing it. These night actions may be keeping your health from … [Read more...]
Can MBSR help fibromyalgia?
Can MBSR help fibromyalgia? After years of being interested in mindfulness and meditation, I finally signed up for a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course in 2017. I'd only recently learned what MBSR was from reading The Whole Health Life by Shannon Harvey, which talks about the … [Read more...]
We’ve Got Awareness, Now It’s Time for Advocacy
It's time to stop focusing on fibromyalgia awareness and start focusing on fibromyalgia advocacy. We've fought so long for fibromyalgia awareness. It's been a struggle just to get people to understand that fibromyalgia is REAL and it is debilitating and life-ending in so many ways. I believe we … [Read more...]
Every Pain Experience is Different
Every pain experience is different. It’s all too easy to try to compare. To try to look at two people with the same health issue and judge one as being dramatic or over-sensitive because they may need more help. But, we can’t judge or compare pain. I was just reading through the HHS Pain … [Read more...]
Progesterone and Fibromyalgia
I’ve been on some form of progesterone since 2013 following my second laparoscopy for endometriosis. It helped with the endometriosis symptoms moderately, but I’m realizing now that progesterone likely helped with much more than that, and played a large role in keeping my fibromyalgia symptoms at … [Read more...]
Myofascial Pain and Fibromyalgia
Myofascial pain feels a lot like muscle pain, chances are you may not be able to tell the difference. But, there is a difference. Myofascial pain isn't caused by tight muscles, but rather by tight fascia. Fascia is the layer of tissue just underneath the skin, between the skin and the … [Read more...]
