Tag Archives: fibro

Your Brain on Pain

I get Real Simple magazine. It felt weird switching from Cosmo to Real Simple, but I suddenly felt like the magazine was being written more towards me, so it was obviously the right time to switch. It’s odd what things make us realize we’re growing up. Anyway, I don’t tend to write about what I read because the things I utilize from the magazine tend to be the organizing and cleaning tips (and there are SO MANY of those online). I do occasionally read stories that tug at my heart, but since I’ve started this blog I hadn’t read a story that felt like it was written specifically for me.

real simple august cover

Well, that all changed in the August 2015 issue (I just read it recently because I fell behind, haha). In the August issue, there is an article simply titled “Pain.” I figured it would probably focus on “normal” pain, for “normal” people… which is kind of true. However, it did actually discuss chronic pain. And there were some disturbing pieces of research mentioned in the article.

Continue reading →

Why Do I Write? A Crazily Long Answer

Why Do You Write?

Wow, that is quite the question, isn’t it?

Well, I tried to answer it on The Story of the Silver Sun and What’s in a Name? pages. However, I also tried to keep those descriptions succinct so that people would actually read them. Let me see if I can elaborate. (I may repeat myself a little, as you may notice if you read those pages, so please be patient. I’m just going to tell the whole story.)

Continue reading →

October Update: Post-op, Chronics, Life

I had my post-op on October 6th, so a while ago now. Oh wow, time flies. I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to update those of you that have been reading all of the surgery updates, school has been extremely time consuming (more on that later).

Nervous

Continue reading →

Thumb Brace

My thumb is still having issues … Like I expected. These cramp things last for quite a while usually. For some reason, I’d never purchased a thumb brace, even though this is a fairly common problem. I have one now though!

Thumb Brace

It’s not beautiful, but it seems to be doing the trick. Writing is still painful, but much more bearable with the brace. Hopefully I can paint in it too.

The Funk Slump

School has been requiring lots of attention. Life has been requiring lots of attention. And I have been feeling pretty awful.

Stubbed Toe

This guy is goofy and I’m in pain, so I guess it works even though I didn’t stub my toe…

Continue reading →

Don’t Worry, I’m Still Alive

I just haven’t been feeling up to doing this (blogging). Which I know means I should, but I just don’t want to. I’m three weeks post-op today! So I figured I’d mark the occasion with a small post filling you in on the last week.

My thoughts have been in a kind of dark funk lately… not things I want to write about though, which is part of why there haven’t been any posts. When my depression freaks out, it kind of takes over, and then I have a hard time doing anything at all.

Temper Tantrum

Continue reading →

The Pain of my Fibro Flares

This is the first time since starting my blog that I’ve had more than basic fibromyalgia symptoms. My fibromyalgia has been mostly under control for at least six months, but it’s kind of hard to tell with all the POTS stuff going on. Some of the symptoms between the two conditions overlap, with chronic fatigue and widespread muscle aches being the two main ones in my case. Towards the end of getting my fibro controlled, I’d been able to identify several of my triggers: injury, bad illness, exhaustion, major over exertion, severe allergy flares (if I haven’t been controlling things very well), sudden shift from warm weather to cold weather (like, from 70F to 40F, which happens in CO on a regular basis), and hurting my feet. Thankfully, many of these triggers need to be paired with others to set off a bad flare.

Continue reading →

Crazy Life… But, Gotta Love It! Right?

Life has been crazy.

  • I’m still recovering and it’s taking a LOT of energy. Though, I’m making major progress on my ear pain and have been able to reduce the pain killers.
  • School. School = homework. Right now: homework = reading multiple chapters. ‘Nuff said.
  • Fibromyalgia is a … unwelcome guest. I was doing so well, too. Oh well, I knew getting my hopes up that this surgery wouldn’t trigger a flare was a bad idea.
  • POTS is also unwelcome, but doesn’t care that I don’t want it around. And my insomnia is flaring up too. Overall, not much fun on the Chronic side of things, and too many unwanted guests hanging around.

So much going on, so many spoons that I want to spend, so many spoons that I don’t have. I also don’t tend to post much on weekends because Dan is home. I adore Dan, and I love spending as much time with him as I possibly can while he’s home. Monday was Labor Day this time, so he was also home; and now he’s on a business trip, so I definitely was not going to be on my computer. I didn’t even turn my computer on Sunday or Monday!

Post-Surgery Update, My Version

Warning: Post contains some images of the surgery site, which are kind of graphic looking.

First off, I’ll start by letting you know that the doctor says everything is fine, no complications 🙂 This is good, and I’ll give more details below. I just didn’t want any of you to be anxious while reading!

Lizz sleeping

Just a reminder of how the whole post-surgery recovery stuff started.

I’m going to start at the moment I wake up. I really hate waking up from anesthesia, it’s not like you’re going from dreaming to waking, but a weird and disjointed confusion. You only remember up until the anesthesia/amnesiacs take effect (provided they are administered properly). This time, I was given the amnesiac in the pre-op area. Continue reading →