I may have a way of working towards a cure for it. Thursday, there is a Brown Bag seminar at lunch time at work about chronic pain. My manager alerted me to it, but I'm still undecided about going. It will mean coming home for a nap, getting ready to go downtown, attending the seminar, then hopefully unwinding enough when I get home to get maybe 4 hours of sleep before getting ready for work. But Thursdays are my "Friday" at work, since I'm off Friday and Saturday night.
Why I think it may help is that I can maybe learn something about getting the point across to others that just because I don't look sick doesn't mean that I'm not sick. A pretty sweater or a swipe of mascara, blush, and lip gloss does NOT mean I am FINE!! If the saying, "You only look as good as you feel." is true, maybe I'm just trying to fool myself into feeling better, but trust me, it doesn't always work.
I tried to hammer home how much fibro affects me at work yesterday. My coworker seemed shocked when I told her some of the things I did...
1. I had dental work this summer with NO novocaine! Yet, fibro pain generally brings me to tears.
2. When I had my hysterectomy 4 1/2 years ago, I used my morphine pump about half as much as they expected. I was taken off of it in 24 hours, and put on Percosets. I was able to come home a day early. When asked about pain, I became tearful about my back and neck, because of being forced to lie on my back. They said, "No, how is your incision and your abdomen?" I said, "Oh, that's fine except for when I have to roll over to get out of bed. Then it pinches a little." There I was crying about the fibro pain, but practically ignoring the post-surgical pain!! Stranger still was that the Percosets virtually eliminated that pain at rest, but did not TOUCH the fibro pain!! I would have to say the neck and back pain was at least 4 times the level of the post-surgical pain, until I was finally able to sleep on my side.
3. I had arthroscopic knee surgery in 1992. I believe I had the fibro back then, but didn't know it. Anyhow, I was back to work in THREE DAYS. I was given Tylenol with codeine as a pain reliever. I took only 2 or 3 of them, and one was the evening following the surgery. A second was because I flexed the knee, not thinking, to try to step up onto the bus on the way home the first night back. That did hurt quite a bit! When I was called by the surgical center the day after the surgery, I complained more about where they put the IV than the knee, because a student attempted to start the IV and did a miserable job of it. The nurse teaching her had to do it, and seemingly knew little more than the student, so I wound up with a very bruised, sore arm.
My point is that I have endured some things most people would find very uncomfortable without much thought. However, the fibro frequently brings me to tears...sometimes for days at a time. What does that say about the fibro?
The invisibility does not necessarily come from the fibro, though. It comes from when you post, and feel like nobody has read it. It comes from people that do not know you exist until they want something. It's those people that respond to your e-mail...or post...when you've asked 3 questions, and they answer one that's not IN the e-mail or post! LOL For example, I can ask three weather-related questions, and find out their favorite food! It's how someone at work can say "Hello." to somebody standing right beside me and not acknowledge me, and say they didn't see me. I'm over 250 pounds, so unless my clothes, skin, and hair all match the walls, (NOT LIKELY!!!) I am not buying it! It's those that, when you start a post, talk to the others that replied to that post, but do not adress what you have said at all.
Betta
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Prev Message
