Fibromyalgia is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and tenderness in specific areas of the body. People with fibromyalgia often experience symptoms such as sleep disturbances, cognitive difficulties (often referred to as “fibro fog”), headaches, and mood disturbances.

Dr. Renata shares her thoughts on fibromyalgia ⬆️

Shoutout to everyone else whose chronic pain is currently being affected by this massive storm system in North America

hi so our last post died, and things have gotten kinda worse with the arrival of our other cat, my elder brothers homelessness, and the racial abuse getting hurled my way

we’re two disabled black lesbians trying to navigate employment discrimination and the American healthcare system, and tbh we’re losing. we originally had to split everything between 6 people, but due to my brothers getting evicted, everything we have (and everything we don’t) also goes to them

like last time, I’m still waiting for a doctor but recently they told me to call back in November. I’ve been calling since April. I believe the stress of everything is causing a flare up of something and I have no idea how to manage it, on top of my new seemingly random food sensitivities that keep popping up. I’m exhausted all the time and sometimes can’t even get out of bed.

on a brighter note, my girlfriend applied to five jobs, but their phone was shut off this morning so it’s urgent that they pay their bill.

we were able to get some necessities early last month due to peoples help, but we can’t make it stretch with 8 people. it’s a shitty situation all around and I wish we didn’t have to ask but until my gf can get a job and I can find out exactly what’s wrong with me, this is literally all we have.

I’m not gonna link my PayPal anymore because people are harassing me with my deadname

my cashapp is $silvertheestallion and my gfs is $Peachjammn

my Venmo is cherryadventure2

thank you so much for reading

Disability tumblr: How do you stay positive when you know it's getting bad? I'm getting so much worse and it feels like it is taking everything from me. My job, my relationship, my education, my friendships, my hobbies. It feels like everything is just falling away from me because I am too tired and in pain to spend time with anyone or do anything and my misery is rubbing off on everyone around me to the point it feels like everyone is just miserable interacting with me. I've really lost all hope and faith because nothing is working and no one is listening to me. Does anyone have any advice for some realistic positivity? What do you do to feel happy whilst being disabled? Any advice would be really helpful :) Thank you!

I got new compression gloves and ankle sleeves and I actually slept through the night for the first time in months.

My mobility aids now include:

- a purple foldable cane

-a blue walker with a glow in the dark dinosaur basket I made (2 wheels in front)

- a blue rollator (4 wheels)

- a blue wheelchair

Hell yeah! I can leave my house. I got a disability lawyer. My PCP confirmed she understands I can't work and is willing to help me get disability.

For those who are unsure of whether or not they really have the "sensitivity to cold" symptom of fibromyalgia, because you think that it's just you not being able to handle colder temperatures like other people, that's one way of putting it. The other way is, when it's winter and the temperatures start dropping, do you feel your pain more intensely? Do you feel like you have more problems with your joints? Is your partner always commenting how cold your fingers and toes are, but it somehow gets more frequent in winter? Those are other ways to consider being sensitive to the cold.

Ok so this is just totally me complaining but maybe some other chronic pain havers can understand where I'm coming from,, I'm so! Sick of being told "just exercise it'll help <3" when I say i have chronic pain. Because you know what! Sure! Maybe it could help! But my baseline of pain makes that sort of movement unbearable. "Just push through it!!" If you felt like your entire body was on fire, would you want to be told going for a run would help it? No!

I just. It's very frustrating hearing that sort of thing, because while yes, sometimes moving can help, I'm someone who, despite having a fibromyalgia diagnosis, has zero treatment(because canada wait lists for referrals is atrocious ..). It'd be a different story if I maybe had meds that got rid of some of the pain and then I could help the rest with exercise, but currently? I can't even sit for extended periods of time without feeling like my back is collapsing in on itself. But yeah, sure, I can totally go on a run and fix all my pain!!/s

i have now come around to “i’m not lying about being sick” but god it sure does sound like it when i’m pulling brand new symptoms out of my ass every time my work asks me to do something. sorry i’ve developed debilitating vertigo since last week. yeah i can’t drive anywhere. can’t really sit up and look at the computer for very long either without puking so i can’t reliably take incoming zoom calls. yeah this is just since the last time you saw me a week ago and i told you i could do those things sorry.

So I found something out about trauma and how it affects us physically, not just mentally.

FND and fibromyalgia CAN BE caused from trauma.

It's not well studied FND and fibromyalgia, but people from Reddit, on here and the people who I talked to in person, all had trauma in some way.

I don't have both, but it is real.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.

I need to shower so badly but I’m in the middle of a flare up and my heart rate is all over the place, I’m really scared of passing out in the shower. What do y’all do in these situations?

Uh-oh. Am I regular sick, or am I new and differently sick? The world may never know.

migraine cravings be like "I know we're super nauseous right now. I know it's 10pm. But if we don't go make some French Toast immediately, we're going to die"

deeply depressing that i am never going to get prescribed the meds i desperately need to function

I should have known better than to dig through my old stories from when I was a teenager. There's so much trauma packed into them.

So I tried to unwind with a nice little video game (a new dating sim/visual story) since I'm having a high support needs day (high pain, poor mental health, increased confusion, anger, etc.) Anyway, I wasn't expecting the little platformer game. Usually not a problem.

Except today I'm not able to do hand-eye coordination well.

Today I'm not able to problem solve well. Today I'm barely able to get out of bed and am at a 12/10 on the pain scale, have negative spoons, and have the patience of my poor traumatized toddler self whose parents told them at age 10 they were a mistake (accident while on birth control) long after the divorce and whose parents should have never been together to start with.

Today, I had a meltdown because I tried to play a free to play video game, I couldn't edit the settings to make it disability-friendly, and struggled for 15 minutes with a task that in not unsimilar to a level in Mario Maker/Flappy Bird. I cried, screamed, and hit things. I wanted to hit my laptop/self-sabotage. But I didn't. I rage screamed (accidentally left the windows open, oops), tried to control the hitting to pillows only, and sat with my feelings.

I am tired of being exhausted all the time. Reparenting myself when my teenage self hates all adults and doesn't trust them is hard. Being kind to myself when everyone else treats me like scum is hard. Melting down over something I wanted to do to cope but suddenly can't do and can't change that is hard. But I will continue to fight for myself and others because no one deserves to be silenced.

My story matters. I owe it to myself to remember, even if it's hard. I can be kind to myself and not push myself.