By wendy, on November 30th, 2011%
By Wendy Burnett
Do you do everything you can to ease your fibro symptoms, and wonder why you don’t feel better? If you’re being exposed to the following substances, you may be undoing all the good you’re doing with your diet, medications and alternative treatments.
- Aluminum Hydroxide – An adjuvant added to vaccines to increase antibody production, aluminum hydroxide is a neurotoxin that has been connected to Gulf War Syndrome; as well as cognitive dysfunctions and motor neuron disease, which is virtually indistinguishable from classical amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) except for the age of onset. It has also been linked to the destruction of, and damage to, motor neurons; which are responsible for telling your muscles to contract or relax, thus controlling movement; as well as for receiving sensations from the body.
- Aspartame – Aspartame (Nutra-Sweet) has been linked to headaches, including migraine; higher pain levels, cancer, brain tumors, tinnitus (ringing or buzzing sound in the ears,) noise sensitivity; decreased vision and/or other eye problems such as: blurring, bright flashes, squiggly lines, tunnel vision; decreased night vision; pain in one or both eyes; dry eyes; dizziness and unsteadiness; confusion and memory loss; severe drowsiness and sleepiness; Continue reading 8 Things You Didn’t Know Would Make Fibromyalgia Worse »
By wendy, on November 26th, 2011%
 Image by librarygrrrl via Flickr By Wendy Burnett
Day 26 – The prompt for today’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Prompts (#HAWMC) is: “I still remember… Free write a post that starts with the line “I still remember…””
I decided that since this one is so general, I’d narrow things down a bit to keep it relevant to chronic illness. Since I mostly focus on my fibromyalgia, or chronic illness and chronic pain in general, I thought I’d put the focus on one of my other issues this time, so this post is going to focus on my migraines.
I still remember . . . the worst migraine I ever had. It’s something I’ll probably never forget. (My hubby probably won’t either, it scared the shit out of him.) I woke up at my usual time and called in to work to remind my boss that I had a doctor’s appointment that day. My head was aching a bit and I felt kind of sick, but I went through my usual routine of showering and washing my hair anyway, feeling worse and worse as I did.
By the time I got done, I felt bad enough to lay down until time to dress, so I curled up with my sleep mask, until suddenly I was violently nauseous. I barely made it to the bathroom before I lost it (thank goodness there was a throw rug I could just roll up to toss into the washer later,) and I was in there so long, making such awful noises, that hubby actually came to check on me.
It got worse from there, because I’m a stubborn bitch, and was determined I wasn’t going to miss an appointment with the rheumatologist that was always booked solid for 6 months ahead.
Hubby had to help me dress, with several interruptions to run worship the porcelain goddess, and eventually we emptied a small trashcan that I could just carry around with me. By this time, my head felt like it was going to explode, even with all the shades drawn and the lights off I could barely stand to open my eyes, and every time hubby whispered a question I nearly screamed from the pain.
Needless to say, the 45 minute drive to the doctor’s office, hugging my trashcan all the way, was a nightmare for both of us. Every bump in the road felt like someone was jabbing a railroad spike through my head, every time I had to open my eyes the light felt like razor blades slicing through my eyeballs, and every sound was like sharp knives inserted into my brain. Poor hubby wasn’t that much better off, either. He has a weak stomach, so every time I heaved, he gagged and choked.
I must admit though, it’s the fastest I’ve ever been taken to the back . . . the second time they had to rush to unlock the door so I could get to the bathroom before I shared my technicolor yawns with everyone in the waiting room, they stuck me in an exam room. I guess they wanted to get me seen and out of there before they had to clean up after me, because the nurse went ahead and started the intake stuff, mostly while I was hanging over their trashcan.
By that point, I couldn’t stop heaving, and within 5 minutes the nurse had rushed out the door and was back with a needle full of something. She kept waiting for the heaves to stop long enough for her to give me the shot, but it just wasn’t happening, so finally she had to poke me while I had my head stuck in the trashcan. (I have NEVER been so glad to be jabbed with a needle in all my life. LOL)
I don’t know what was in that syringe, but it was some damn good stuff. It was only about a minute before the vomiting stopped, and by the time I rinsed my mouth out I was so groggy that hubby had to pick me up and put me on the exam table (I don’t actually remember that part, the next thing I remember is waking up about 2 hours later.) Hubby said later that the nurse had been in there checking on me about every 15 minutes; and as soon as they found out I was awake the doctor came in, we finished the appointment, and I was GONE. (With scripts for Phenergan, Maxalt, and some narcotic pain-reliever in addition to my usual double handful of stuff.)
I’ve had other bad migraines, including ones that lasted for days of wishing someone would chop my head off for me, and others where I threw up several times. I’ve had lots of migraines where I wished I could just die and get it over with, but that’s the only one that ever made me wonder if it was actually possible to die of a migraine.
This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J
By wendy, on November 26th, 2011%
By Wendy Burnett
Day 24: Today’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Prompt (#HAWMC) is: “My Mascot! Give your condition, community, or self a mascot. Who is it? What do they represent? What is their battle cry?”
 FibroFighter's secret weapons When I first saw this prompt, it freaked me out a little . . . Me, create a mascot? Oh no, I couldn’t do that. After all, I’m not that creative, am I? Well, maybe I am, because the idea kept sort of sloshing about in the mush that is my brain; bumping into all these other ideas about fibro, and coping, and pain. Some of the ideas stuck together, a picture started forming in my head, and suddenly there she was. FibroFighter, the fibromyalgia mascot, waving a hot pad and shouting “I can do it!”
FibroFighter is just as much a superhero as a mascot though. She has to be to do even part of the things that a “normal” (read “not sick”) person does every day while coping with constant pain, exhaustion so deep it feels like it pins her to the bed, and fibrofog that turns her brain to mush.
FibroFighter’s “secret weapons:” Continue reading Introducing . . . FibroFighter! the Fibromyalgia Mascot/Superhero »
By wendy, on November 19th, 2011%
 Pain Flares Image via Wikipedia
By Wendy Burnett
Day 10 – The Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Prompt (#HAWMC) for today: “The future of online activism. Our favorite social media sites are constantly undergoing renovations to become quicker to navigate, easier to interact with, all encompassing, mobile, and everywhere. Imagine the same thing about your community – how will they evolve, improve, and grow?”
The face of online activism changes constantly, with new causes and people appearing and disappearing like the flicker of lightning bugs on a warm summer evening. I think that health activism is even more fluid, because many of us became activists because of our own heath issues, and when those issues flare we sometimes have to take a break to deal with them.
I actually haven’t been able to write for 10 days or so because of a major flare of my own, caused by a horrible confluence of triggers all happening at the same time. Changeable weather, the two busiest weeks of the month at work, and running out of a couple of the things I use to keep my symptoms under control several days before my check came so I could replace them, all sent my pain levels through the roof. Throw in even higher stress levels than usual and painsomnia keeping me from sleeping more than 5 or 6 hours a night, and I’ve been pretty much screwed for the last couple of weeks. (And let’s not forget the cranky husband who isn’t getting what he needs. He doesn’t complain, but it does make him a lot more irritable.)
Okay, back to the point of this whole evolution, how fluid health activism can be. People appear, disappear, and reappear on a regular basis because of these personal issues; unlike activists that focus on other areas, who (usually) don’t have to deal with random flares of illnesses that can put them in bed for days.
Although it makes it more difficult to plan, I think having an illness is actually a big advantage for a health activist. (Don’t shoot me yet, this is actually going to make sense . . .) Continue reading Online Activism – Learning, Growing, & Evolving »
By wendy, on November 14th, 2011%
 Image by Big Grey Mare via Flickr
By Wendy Burnett
“Shit Happens” – I know you’ve heard the expression somewhere. There are lots of other ways to say it, but it happens to all of us. Things go wrong. They just do. You can’t prevent bad things from happening sometimes, but you CAN stop them from destroying you when they do.
There have been lots of bad things happening around here in the last several months, and we’re all stressed out about them, but I’m not totally freaked like I would have been a few years ago.
Instead of freaking out, I’ve been looking for other options like ways to bring in more money and ways to save on things I use all the time. Instead of becoming paralyzed, I’ve used the “shit” as motivation, and as fertilizer for the flowering of new ideas. Continue reading Shit Happens – Use it to Fertilize the Flowers »
By wendy, on November 7th, 2011%
 Image by ParkerSav via Flickr
By Wendy Burnett
The Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) continues with the day 7 prompt: “Case of the Mondays. Write about something that gets you down, burns you out, or makes you sad. Purge it in a blog post. Turn it around at the end. Tell Tuesday why you’re ready for it.”
Mondays for me come more than once a week. Actually, I have a “Monday” anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week, because every day I have to go to work at the “awful place” is Monday.
If you haven’t already figured it out, I hate my job. I would literally prefer that someone shoot me than have to go into that place, but I’ve missed a grand total of one day in the last 18 months. I don’t have a choice, I have to work, or we don’t eat . . .
I work retail, part-time, because retail stores won’t hire full-time workers any more (and I couldn’t survive working full-time at the awful place anyway.) I spend my evenings standing on my feet slicing meat in a deli for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours at a stretch (usually after walking about a half mile to get there,) then walk home. 
I actually don’t mind waiting on customers and doing the cleaning when I close. Honestly, on the nights I actually have time to get all the stuff I’m supposed to do done, I enjoy the job. My customers are mostly nice, the regulars will come by and just kind of “hang out” for a few if I’m not busy; and the people I work with are pretty cool, too. Even my department manager is a sweetheart, and does all he can to not give me a schedule I can’t handle.
The issue is corporate, as usual. They demand more work than any THREE people could do in the amount of time they give us to do it in, then raise hell if it doesn’t get done. (I swear, I think it must be a requirement to get a lobotomy to be promoted to corporate. If it wasn’t, those people would have to know it’s not physically possible for one person to do what they expect.)
Let me give you an example. We’re allowed one person on duty at a time, and are expected to put out stock, wait on customers, make party trays, slice meat for the sub sandwiches another part of the department makes (on busy days, we go through about 40 pounds of ham and 60+ pounds of turkey, which all has to be sliced and weighed out into individual half-pound packets,) help out in bakery and making prepared food, put away deliveries and rotate stock, mark down things that are approaching the last day of sale, scan out outdated food, keep everything cleaned, set up new displays and reset all the stock every time they decide to move things around, and make sure we always have samples out.
We’re open 13 hours a day, and we’re allowed a total of 13 hours a day labor, so they expect us to also do all of the “closing” cleaning while we’re actually open. Now I don’t know about you, but I haven’t figured out how to be in two different places at the same time. Continue reading Moody Mondays – The Worst of It . . . »
By wendy, on November 6th, 2011%
 Image by bayareabaw via Flickr
By Wendy Burnett
Oh, well, looks like yesterday is going to have to be one of my “get out of post free” days. Between the pain levels and the Vicodin hangover (I don’t take that crap very often, so it can have some odd effects,) I slept until I had to get ready for work. I’ll probably make it up later though, because the prompt is pretty interesting.
The day 6 prompt for The Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge (#HAWMC) is “If I could do anything as a Health Activist… Get aspirational. Money is no longer an option. What is your biggest goal that is now possible? How could you get there? Now bring it back down to size. How much of this can you accomplish now, in a year, in five years?”
This is gonna be fun. I’ve been thinking about all the things I’d like to do if I had the money for a WHILE and a lot of it is just going to be writing it all down, so lets get started.
- First, I’d quit my job at the awful place so I could focus on my writing and research.
- I’d set up an actual office/studio space so I’d have somewhere I could do audios, videos, and decent pictures for my writing and get away from the constant interruptions while I’m trying to write.
- I’d start working on that TV show from day 2 of the challenge.
- I’d start the newsletter that’s been waiting for me to be able to afford the autoresponder for it, upgrade my hosting plan to provide more functionality for my site, upgrade my free accounts on places like HootSuite and Timely, get rid of all the annoying affiliate links on my site, and do some advertising.
- I’d do more experimentation and research on alternative treatments, and get certified as both an herbalist and an aromatherapist.
- I’d add resources to the website, like scheduled chats on various topics with someone actually there even if I had to pay them, beginner’s guides for the newly diagnosed, and whatever else we could come up with that would be helpful.
- Finally, I’d hire some other members of the chronic illness community to do things like find useful links and research, contribute content, and do graphics and website upgrades/maintenance. I know that there are thousands of people out of work, but I think that part of my responsibility as an activist is to help our OWN community first, and only go outside for services if I can’t find someone within the community to do what needs done.
I know from experience that with the flexibility to work from home, when symptoms allow, most of us are able to do a lot more than we think is possible. In addition, the opportunity to be productive and contribute something helps immensely with the emotional stresses of being sick all the time. It’s more complicated to have to manage multiple employees who need flexibility, rather than a single employee that can do the whole job; but that single employee has a chance at a traditional job, where the others have no hope of being hired by a company that only cares about getting the job done as cheaply as possible.
Now for part two . . . what CAN I do with the resources I have available? In the next year I can continue to add more content and develop resources for the community. I especially want to add at least one article on how to tell whether a “member” site for various illnesses is a genuine forum for helpful resources or a “shill” site sponsored by someone with something to sell. I can update my “links” pages, and I can go ahead and start the newsletter I want to do without the autoresponder.
In the next five years? I have no idea, other than more of the above. Most everything else requires money, and I have no way of knowing whether the financial situation will change enough to allow me to do any of those things.
This post was written as part of NHBPM – 30 health posts in 30 days: http://bit.ly/vU0g9J
By wendy, on November 2nd, 2011%
 By Wendy Burnett
WEGO Health is having a month long event called “The Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge” (#HAWMC) through November. It sounded pretty interesting, and I can always use more ideas for posts, so I decided to participate even though I didn’t find out about it until I was getting ready for work yesterday. I’m already a day late with my first post, but I figure what the hell, it’s only one extra post, so here we go . . .
The prompt for the first post is “Titles of my future book. Come up with 5 working titles and a quick book jacket synopsis.” This is actually an easy one for me, since all of these books are in the process of being written, and the synopsis is just the basic premise of each book. I don’t know if they’ll ever be published through a traditional publisher, but they will all be available as both e-books and Kindle editions when I finish them.
Making Your Own Medicine: A Guide to Adding Herbs to Your Treatment Plan - The use of herbs (and other alternative treatments) can improve quality of life and reduce the need for medications, IF they are used safely and appropriately. This guide provides information about how to safely integrate alternative treatments, how-to’s for creating herbal treatments, and resources for finding more information.
Suffering is Optional: My Life with Chronic Illness - Although I have pain and fatigue (and lots of other symptoms,) I don’t suffer from them. They don’t make me miserable, or cause me psychological distress, or make me unhappy. Continue reading Current Projects: Titles of My Future Books »
By wendy, on November 2nd, 2011%
What do you pay attention to in your life? Is it the 5 people who say, “I hope your pain levels drop soon,” or the one who makes a nasty comment like, “fibromyalgia doesn’t exist, you just don’t want to have to work like the rest of us?” (Yes, I’ve actually had someone say that to me.)
I’m going to tell you something you already know, and you’re likely to think I’m sort of nuts until you read a little further.
You can only see the things you look at.
Yes, it sounds stupidly obvious, of course if you don’t look at it you can’t see it, but there’s a point to this statement that is directly related to living as well as possible with your chronic illnesses. It took me a LOT of years to make the connection (I’m a little slow,) and I’m hoping I can help you catch on a little quicker than I did. Continue reading Where is Your Attention Focused?: Positive Thinking for the Chronically Ill »
By wendy, on October 30th, 2011%
 Credit: Free images from acobox.com
By Wendy Burnett
When I was in therapy, my therapist used to tell me I was comparing my “insides” to everyone else’s “outsides.” (Thanks Ginny, it took me a while, but I finally get it.) Intellectually, I understood what she was saying, but I never really “felt” it until recently.
What gave me the push I needed was one day when I was still working fast food. One of the people I was working with said she envied me and wished she had a life like mine . . . My immediate thought was, “darlin, if you knew what my life is really like, you wouldn’t want it.” That’s when it really connected for me.
She only saw what I let her see, the cheerful, funny me with the great friends and strong marriage. Continue reading Are You Comparing Your Insides to Everyone Else’s Outsides? »
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"The moral test of a society is how that society treats those who are in the dawn of life . . . the children; those who are in the twilight of life . . . the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life . . . the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."
---Hubert Humphrey
Welcome to the new home of Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired. I hope you'll enjoy the changes, and the new resources I'll be adding as I have time to work on the site. Things will look a bit odd while I learn where and how to modify the appearance, so please bear with me.
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