Even though my body has been cooperating recently, and I’ve been able to do a lot more, I haven’t been “healthy.” I’m still experiencing pain, taking a slightly slower period of time to recover than an “average” person, and having to deal with some other aspects of my chronic illnesses. Even though I was able to walk around on Mt Evans and I enjoyed a car trip and short hike with my husband to look at the fall colors in the mountains, I’ve been having some struggles. Continue reading
It’s easy to fall into the trap of only showing the negative aspects of chronic illness. When we’re “healthy” (for us) and feeling well, we tend to go out and live! When we’re sick and feeling awful, that’s when we think “I haven’t written in a while, and this is something interesting to write about.” If we’re just so-so then we’re probably doing something that we deem ‘boring’ and don’t write about it. I try to keep my blog focused on my entire life, not just the chronic illness pieces, but it’s definitely easier to write about the “bad times.”
However, I have been quite lucky lately: my body is cooperating. For the most part, I’ve been able to feel relatively normal in the past few weeks. No, I’m not ‘better’ but I’ve been able to do more than I had been able to do in over a year! My Pilates classes went surprisingly well, my physical therapy was going really well, and I’ve been able to be significantly more active day-to-day! Of course, I’m waiting to accidentally run off a cliff (metaphorically of course), but until then I’m really excited that my body is letting me be ‘normal’ most of the time! Continue reading
Fibromyalgia. It’s different for everyone that has it, but one thing remains constant: no one likes having it. 
Most people with fibromyalgia agree that it storms into your life like a hurricane, knocks you flat on your back, and takes up residence in your life like an uninvited house guest that just doesn’t take a hint!
Since everyone is so different, I will try my best to touch on the main symptoms that I see almost everyone suffering from, but my main focus is simply on my personal experience with fibromyalgia and what I have done to ease the symptoms I have. Continue reading
For me, summer equals significantly more physical activity. I’m sure most people that live in an area that experiences winter will agree: when the weather is “nice” we do as much as possible to try to make up for being inside all winter. When you are chronically ill, however, more physical activity can also equal significantly more pain.
My fibromyalgia is the main cause of my pain in the winter, but I experience different pain in the summer. I haven’t been able to figure out how big a role each of my conditions plays into the summer pain, but I have developed a few tricks for dealing with it. My summer pain is extreme muscular fatigue, joint pain, and an all over bruised sensation; I do experience nerve pain, but it’s usually do to a pinched nerve thanks to my joint problems instead of due to my fibromyalgia. I also have to juggle my dysautonomia which includes a lot of problems with temperature regulation (leading to overheating) and swelling. Continue reading
I made an appointment to see the only adult geneticist in the state of Colorado over one year ago. (Read more: here.) It was actually fourteen months ago. The appointment was because I wanted to know for sure if I had something more specific than the joint hypermobility syndrome my rheumatologist diagnosed me with (as a working diagnosis).
So I waited… and my appointment was just on Monday! I’m extremely excited about it, and it was one of the best appointments I’ve ever had.
It’s the age of computers! That also means, unfortunately, that it’s the age of chronic back pain and chronic neck/shoulder tension. Even those that are not stuck to a computer for eight or more hours a day have a lot more neck and shoulder tension than people used to. 
This chronic tension is due to how much time we spend looking forward and down. Are you reading this on your phone? Even if you’re not, I bet you’ve spent a decent amount of time on your phone in the past two hours. Are you working on homework at a desk (if you’re in school)? Do you get home from work and flop onto the couch to unwind with dinner and movie? Do you have to commute in traffic? All of these things contribute to the epidemic of chronic neck and shoulder tension, tension headaches, chronic back pain, and general muscle stiffness.
Thankfully, there are things that can help! You do not have to be stuck with the chronic tension and pain.
At the end of April, I underwent 10 hours (over a three day period) of neuropsychological testing and interviewing. Obviously, to go through the data of 10 hours of testing takes a while, so I had to wait until June 5th to get my results. Only a very small part of the results were actually a surprise, and none of it was bad news.
I was officially diagnosed on the autism spectrum! Yes, this is good news for me, and validates the “I think my brain works differently than the average population” feeling I’ve had my entire life. My official diagnosis is “autism spectrum disorder, level 1, without significant language or intellectual impairment” (because they like to make diagnosis names as long as possible). I’ll get more into the details of this diagnosis below.
I was also given a secondary diagnosis of “other specified depressive disorder,” which seems to essentially just be a moderate and persistent depression that doesn’t fit the diagnostic criteria for other depressive disorders; this wasn’t a surprise at all because I have had depression since I was in late elementary school (maybe about 10 years old), and have been treated off and on for years. Continue reading
I’ve hit the end of the road with my allergies, apparently. I went to my ENT/allergist on June 2nd, to follow-up about what the specialist immunologist/allergist had to say. Sadly, the super specialist just wanted to focus on my eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) and didn’t care about the reason I was actually there: I would massively overreact to every allergy shot I got at doses most people don’t ever react to (even anaphylactic people). Even though they want me to come back, I will not be returning to the super-specialist because my EoE is being managed by my gastroenterologist and my ENT/allergist is more concerned with my allergies than them. Continue reading
If you haven’t done so already, please check out part 2 of my “Dan as my Husband and Caretaker” series and leave any questions in the comments! I want to interview him, to get a different perspective on our relationship, but I can’t do that without your questions! (He won’t just write something, I’ve asked him to before.) I want the questions primarily geared towards Dan, but please feel free to ask anything at all! We will do our best to answer all of your questions! (If the post won’t let you comment, please head to my Contact page and send me an email. Subject: Questions for Caretaker Interview.)
I haven’t done a lot of blogging lately, and it’s due to how low my energy levels have been.
Since January 1, 2017 (the last six months), I have had 74 medical related appointments. These appointments include doctor visits, testing (not counting some unscheduled blood draws), therapy visits, and medical related classes. I also had two urgent care visits and an emergency room visit, all of which are outlined in The Case of the Missing Lizz. I have also done two different, intense, diets for my chronic health problems (including my GI problems): the low FODMAP diet, which was not successful, and now I’m doing the LEAP diet. All of the medical stuff has, understandably, drained significant portions of my energy.
The LEAP diet has played a major role in my energy problems, sadly. Continue reading
Finding Life's Silver Sun 