3 Things That Affect Our Communication with Doctors Reading 3 Reasons Doctors Need to Understand Their Patients Health Beliefs and it struck me how important it is for us to have a good relationship with our doctor. We need to have communication with our doctor almost at the same level we have with … [Read more...]
Coping with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Illness
Inspiration and thoughts on how to improve coping skills when dealing with Fibromyalgia, chronic pain, fatigue, and invisible illness.
Changing Your Perception of Chronic Pain
Perceptions of control make a difference.People who think they have more control show less response to stress. {Stress}may be less intense among those who think of them as challenges to be overcome. Many stressful events are not inherently stressful. Their impact depends partly on … [Read more...]
We Are What We Think: Don’t Worry About Tomorrow
How often do you avoid doing something because you are worried about how it will make you feel? How much time do you spend worrying about tomorrow? What could happen? Instead of living life to the fullest? As I read Sue Ingbretson's article on Rehearing Positivity, and I couldn't help but relate … [Read more...]
Jumping Out of My “Zone”
Since I started back to school this summer, we've talked a lot about how much I can handle. The first couple of weeks of my summer class were all about me getting used to having this new responsibility / schedule on my plate. All the while, I was debating whether to add a second summer class during … [Read more...]
Dismissive Doctors and the Death of Compassion for Invisible Illness
Hey Doctor, remember me? I'm the one you dismissed. You said I was faking it or it was all in my head. Well, guess what... you were wrong. We've all been there at least once with a dismissive doctor and oh how we long to be able to go back to them the way that Dorothy did on Golden … [Read more...]
You Can Only Be Who You Are
Those of us with chronic illness often spend a lot of time and energy on envy. We envy the lives that others have. We envy their health, the ease with which they seem to live, their ability to do all the things. However, often we don't stop and take notice of what we have and think about whether … [Read more...]
13 Commandments of Fibromyalgia
It seems there is a 10 Commandments for everything these days. As I was reading The Happiness Project, her mention of her Commandments for Adulthood, got me thinking about what the 10 Commandments of Fibromyalgia would be. As I thought about it, I realized that I could not stop at 10, instead I … [Read more...]
Caution: Chronic Illness May Cause Relationship Conflicts
Relationship issues have been in the foreground of my mind lately, so today's Sunday Inspiration post has been inspired by three posts on handling relationship conflicts. We've been in counseling for several months now and if there's one thing I've learned it's that I can't focus on what I'd want … [Read more...]
Chronic Pain Is like…
Pain is kinda like a nagging child. "mommy...mommy... mommy...mommy". Those of us with chronic pain learn to ignore it the same way most parents can tune out that nagging, but eventually it just gets to be too much and you scream "WHAT DO YOU WANT!" There are so many analogies of … [Read more...]
Bidet Done That: Cleaning Up the IBS Mess
If you'd mentioned a bidet to me a year ago, I'd have probably smiled and nodded while thinking "That's just weird". Actually, that's still about what I thought when two of my best friends returned from a European vacation and ordered a bidet for their home toilet. I nodded thinking "yeah, ok. I … [Read more...]
