2015 - 30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know
30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know
* The following has changed since 2015, stay tuned for updated "30 Things"
1. The illness I live with is: Anemia, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia (that I know of)
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: Anemia started 2005; Fatigue and Fibro August 2012
3. But I had symptoms since: 2010
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Sleep schedule, knowing when to stop instead of pushing past my limits
5. Most people assume: It's normal every day aches or old age pains :) or I simply overslept or being lazy
6. The hardest part about mornings are: Getting out of bed. Sometimes my back hurts so bad I can't do anything but lay there.
7. My favorite medical TV show is: Right now Grey's Anatomy. It used to be House when it was on the air.
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My scanner/adobe type writer; I have issues writing for to long so what I tend to do is scan things I need to write on and use my adobe typewriter to fill in the forms.
9. The hardest part about nights are: Getting comfortable enough to fall asleep or keeping my RLS at bay
10. Each day I take _ 7_ pills & vitamins. (No comments, please. That is including taking 1 pill twice out the day)
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: Am still looking.
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose:Actually I probably would prefer an invisible one. Even with all the trouble of trying to convince someone that you do have a problem. I would prefer that over them seeing my pain everyday and either feeling sorry for me or it hurting them too seeing my problems. At least this way I can hide it when I need to (which also causes it's own problems :) ).
13. Regarding working and career: Hmm, that has been my biggest struggle. I would like to be further along than I am, but I wonder sometimes if I take on the extra work will I be able to keep up. Or will my ailment remain at the stage it's at or worsen making it harder to keep up.
14. People would be surprised to know: Anything is wrong with me. I rarely just let go and lay out not moving. I try to push through, which on days I fall asleep at the drop of a dime is kinda scary.
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:Unpredictability. I love to plan ahead, but I can't always count on my plans.
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: Running. With the pain that I feel and the extreme pain I feel after exercising I didn't think I would be strong enough to even pretend to run, but I do. And I love it. And will keep it up until my body tells me otherwise.
17. The commercials about my illness: Are vague. I'm glad they are there because then when I say Fibromyalgia or chronic pain people are like "Oh yeah" I heard about that. But they don't really do it justice.
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Getting up and just going. Now getting up is an issue and some days I can't go because I can't wake up.
19. It was really hard to have to give up: Hanging out after the kids are in bed. That's usually my me time or me and hubby time, but for the most part I usually need too (don't always do what I need) go to bed when they do to function in the mornings.
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: I haven't fully executed it, but I want to garden. Actively as mentioned above I've taken up running.
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Take the kids somewhere like disney were we would walk around all day, ride rides, eat whatever and do it again the next day. As it stands if I did that I wouldn't be able to walk either the next day or a few hours into that day.
22. My illness has taught me: Priorities
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: Just take some tylenol or just get up and move around you'll feel better.
24. But I love it when people: Want to know more and don't blame everything on my ailment
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: Of course, God doesn't give you anything you can't handle.
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: Don't think about what you can't do, remember all you can and do what you can until you can't.
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: How little people know about others. When I tell people
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: My hubs took the kids out the whole day so I could be alone to sleep, surf the internet or just veg out.
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: There are a lot of those who suffer in silence and I was one of them. I'm not trying to put a sign on my back and say look at me, but look at the illnesses support those with them.
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Happy that maybe you will take interest or show us chronically ill some support.
My Facebook Page: F-A-I-D-Fighting-Against-Invisible-Diseases
MS Donations: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Donate
My Personal Lupus Donation page: http://lupus.donorpages.com/Raise4Lupus/TPQ/
