*hugs* to everyone who's been having trouble and having to deal with these chronic problems. Right now, I think my most serious "chronic illness" is dealing with the friends who don't understand and are just tired of me not "getting better".
Who are convinced it's all psychological and if I'd stop thinking about it I'd get better.
Sometimes, I want to strangle them.
I've got asthma that is fairly well controlled, but I do avoid situations that would put me into an attack if I can. Their attitude has become lately that I'm avoiding them because I don't want to come to their house for the evening because of my asthma.
I have acid reflux, so have to be careful about what I eat or it sets off heartburn.
I also have a lot of allergies, especially with foods, so have to be careful about what I eat that way. Luckily, only three are serious enough to cause a *concern*: shellfish, nuts, and soy. And none are bad enough to put me in the hospital -- yet anyway. I just avoid those foods where I can. Do you know how hard it is to avoid both soy and nuts?
I know, there are other allergies that are worse, but it sure is annoying.
Then I also have that nebulous
something else that we just don't *know* what it is. Some form of chronic fatigue? Possibly. I know I'm always tired and frequently (especially lately) weak. Their reaction: "you just need to exercise more".
I know I most likely have Epstein Barr because I had mono in high school and from what I've been told, if you've ever had mono you WILL have epstein barr. But since there's no cure for it and the treatment is to rest, we haven't put the money out on tests.
I also have a recuring UTI that kicks in at the drop of a hat. Because of that, my lower back and stomach are almost always aching anywhere from a very minor barely-there ache to quite painful.
I suffer from hives of some sort that no one's been able to identify, and the treatments haven't worked. So I just suffer through them. For some bizzare reason, the doctors don't want to try steroids on me but no one will tell me why.
Lately, I've been fighting a near-constant head ache that ranges from the pressure you get by just placing your thumb on your forehead to a solid ache. Luckily not to migraine status, but I swear, thumb-on-forehead-tension could be used like Chinese water torture.
The headache, weakness, fatigue and muscle ache are bad enough for long enough now that I've got an appointment with my endocrinologist tomorrow to get me tested. Again. Maybe this time the tests will show something, because half these symptoms were almost non-existant 2 years ago. Shoot, they weren't even this bad last time I saw him about 5 months ago.
My fear is that it'll be lupus. My mom has lupus, and I've shown enough of the classic symptoms for the past 10 years that we've been watching me for that and for hypothyroid, but the tests always come back negative or "borderline-positive". This time, I'm going to ask him to do the most aggressive testing he can do since *whatever* it is that is causing me a problem is in a flare-up right now.
I just had to come here and vent. My feelings have been hurt yet again because of my friends' reaction of being sick and tired of me being sick.
Hello, and you think *I* like it? Try living with it.
!
