MyFibroKindaLife

[myfibrokindalife]

Sooo long story short I have had bad shoulder pain for about 14 years or so but was told it was just fibromyalgia and to get used to it. This past year though it got bad enough i thought i tore my muscle in my shoulder and could feel my bone rubbing across the muscles. I finally got a referral for physical therapy and went today. Here i was thinking i was just being a wimp or dramatic but it turns out my fourth and fifth ribs are bot misaligned and i might have a slipped thoracic disc…

In other words this could be a lot of the problems I’ve had for years and i just thought it was permanent. It can cause headaches (i had migraines with bo findable cause for years), can pinch nerves (my right hand sometimes stops working well and has since 2015), and can cause tightness and misalignment of muscles which explains why pushups have felt like literal hell and why lying on my back felt like i was being stabbed.

Part of me is angry this wasn’t found sooner but part of me is relieved to hear I’m not crazy and it does actually hurt a lot. Here is hoping pt helps because he said surgery was an unlikely option for this kind of injury.

Anyways here is a reminder to stop ignoring pain for years if it isn’t going away. Sometimes you just need the right specialist. (I also get that doctors are expensive which is why I’ve held off on this for five years to avoid debt).

[myalgicencephalomyelitiscfstom]

[chronically-ill-and-feral]

this is the picture I show any doctor when I have to go.

Anymore, when I get asked about my pain, I just hand the doctor my phone. I've been at a constant 8 on the chronic illness side of the picture for a year and a half now. I hate it but I thought this could be useful. I straight up got the off of Google so I am unsure who to credit for the original but I have been a great help to me so I wanted to share.

[johnlennonirl]

Yesterday the 12th of May was Fibromyalgia awareness day. I'm a little late uploading it, but spreading awareness is being done nonetheless. Lots of love for my chronic pain people!! <3

[spooniestrong]

[myfibrokindalife]

Week nine update. My voice has dropped a decent amount so far and I’m finally starting to see facial hair forming. Its nothing drastic yet but still there. I also am a lot stronger than i used to be and don’t need help with lifting stuff that I used to.

I am super excited to see further developments in that way.

I am also starting to see some changes down below with a mild size increase of about a cm and my period being far lighter than usual. Normally i bleed heavily a day and a half and this time it was only heavy for about three hours. My cramps also were majorly reduced this round.

I swapped to injections over the gel four and a half weeks ago and i love the change. The gel was $74 a month and the injections are only $13.50 a month which is a huge difference. I also no longer have to worry about it transferring to other people or rubbing off on stuff. I also can shower whenever i want without worrying i wont get my full dose if it washes off. Highly recommend the injections instead.

[myfibrokindalife]

Week four update! My voice definitely has dropped again and I absolutely love it!!!

Some other changes ive seen are that my acne is getting bad so I’m upping my skincare routine, and my period hurt way less than usual. Ive had serious pms cramps the past year that make me almost throw up and that didn’t happen this time. I still bled for three and a half days like normal but it was slightly less heavy and far less crampy than usual.

I was super tired the past week but that might be because i caught yet another cold (3rd one in 2023 somehow) so it’s hard to judge energy levels.

Still not seeing much of a change in hair texture or amount of body hair yet so keeping an eye out for that. Overall im super happy with results so far.

I have a followup appointment tomorrow where I’m hoping to swap from the gel to the injections because my insurance makes it stupid price wise. One month on gel after insurance was $74 while one month of injections is only $19. I don’t regret starting with the gel but id like to save cash on that. Another bonus of the injections over gel is that gel can accidentally transfer to others if you aren’t careful so I’ve had to wear T-shirts at all times around my partner and/or had to wash off the gel before bed so i lost part of the dose which sucks when it is so expensive. Hoping the injections go well for my body so i can avoid having to worry about wearing sleeves in the summer or washing off properly before swimming etc.

[myfibrokindalife]

Three week testosterone update. My voice has dropped enough to actually notice it! I am super excited about that. Other notable things are that my face looks slightly more angular now instead of super round. I also feel stronger and like my skin is changing texture a bit on my face.

Fibromyalgia wise i actually feel leas symptoms than normal. Im starting to wonder if i had low testosterone levels causing some of my chronic fatigue and weakness.

[myfibrokindalife]

Update on my t journey. This second week has been ROUGH. My emotions are all over the place and i am facing things i had shoved into the deal with it later pile. I forgot how much hormones make your brain swarm with anxiety. I have decided to look into a second therapist specifically for gender stuff so that i have support from someone trained on that front.

[myfibrokindalife]

So I’m in a very unique position currently. I am coming to terms with being a trans man and with that i have decided to take the journey of starting low dose testosterone. I have also had a fibromyalgia diagnosis for 7 years now but active fibro for 12 years.

I asked my doctor what effects testosterone could have on a person with fibromyalgia and she stated we honestly don’t know because not that many people have had both come up and then of those people very few if any have been studied or published something about that.

I would like to use this blog to describe my experience and symptoms as i go on this journey so that someone someday might have that resource which isn’t there currently.

I am officially on day 7 of 25 mg 1% testosterone gel and so far it has had no adverse reactions with either my duloxetine or my fibromyalgia.

Some interesting things i have noted today are that my grip strength seems a tad stronger than normal, and i have energy where i normally don’t anymore. I wasn’t able to post true data for week one as i ended up catching some sort of throat and ear infection so my body was recovering from that but now that i am mostly better i am going to try to note any changes as i see them.

Emotionally i am realizing i can separate myself from situations a tad better than i used to in that i feel slightly less bound to the strong feeling of the thing at hand and more able to step back and ask why than i could last week.

Anyways i hope to post as i see changes and/or weekly. Feel free to ask me questions if you have some as this is a bit of new territory!

[owlet]

i think it’s important to acknowledge that there is a contingent of doctors who have been... uh... coasting ever since med school ended. here’s a quick crash course in telling them apart

competent doctor: recognizes that your symptoms sound familiar but also realizes that the illness is outside the scope of their expertise, so they give you a referral

incompetent doctor: doesn’t recognize your symptoms, chalks it all up to a mental health and/or weight problem and refuses any follow-up care

competent doctor: stays up to date on the latest research in their field, is interested in sharing newly-discovered information with you

incompetent doctor: maintains the absolute minimum amount of knowledge to not have their license revoked

competent doctor: approaches their patients with good faith

incompetent doctor: assumes all patients are deceptive and have ulterior motives

competent doctor: recognizes crying and other overt pain symptoms as unacceptable and tries to resolve your pain any way they’re able

incompetent doctor: ignores pain and either refuses to attempt to treat yours or willingly worsens it during a treatment by ignoring your reactions

competent doctor: realizes they don’t have all the answers, isn’t intimidated by the thought that you attend other doctors

incompetent doctor: views their patients as income-generators and feels personally insulted when you attempt to leave their practice

competent doctor: recognizes all their patients are people; will be transparent about your treatment and speak to you with advanced and specific terminology if you demonstrate that you understand

incompetent doctor: views patients as a sub-class of people, justifies lying to patients as “for their own good”

[zvaigzdelasas]

Maybe if instead of the vague cutesy term "brain fog" we use the more directly accurate term "neurological damage", that will help ppl stop seeing that as a "minor" outcome of covid

[thedreamsofgods]

Brain fog is a term that has been in use by disabled people for a specific type of symptom for at least 30 years. Instead of blaming disabled people for not being taken seriously when they try to discuss issues they face in the most understandable way possible, let's look at why doctors refuse to take patients seriously when they say "I can't think clearly, like a thick fog has covered my brain"

Brain fog was never a "cutesy term" before covid, and it isnt the fault of people who experience it that it's the best way we can think of to talk about this symptom when hey, we're experiencing it

Abled people are treating basically every part of long covid as "minor" and its affecting people who have experienced these symptoms their entire lives severely. It's not disabled people's fault abled people refuse to take our illnesses seriously and it's not the fault of the terms we made for ourselves and use

[vitariesocks]

More about long COVID by a young person with long COVID. Inspired by the stories of hundreds of COVID long-haulers.

A sequel to this comic on my long COVID symptoms.

Ko-Fi

(ID under the cut)

Keep reading

[vitariesocks]

Reblogging this comic again as my other one is going around again. I think that this one deserves to be seen, too. Thousands of people have responded to my long COVID story and shared their experiences with long COVID. I wish you could read all of them, but I’ve summarized some of it here.

Reblogging December 30, 2021. As of November 2021, up to 50% of people who survive COVID will have long COVID.

[spoonie-chronicles]

in case you haven’t heard it today: it’s okay to give yourself patience and celebrate the little wins

-if all you can do is half your laundry today, that’s a half you wouldn’t of had done that is now clean!

-if you don’t have the energy for your whole face routine, wiping it down with water is okay

-if you can’t clean your whole room today, cleaning it portion by portion overtime is stellar!

-if a meal right now feels overwhelming, a snack is better than nothing <3

-if all you can do today is get out of bed, you have succeeded in my books x

all this boils down to is: it’s okay to take it baby step by baby step instead of leap by leap

[wheremyspoonsat-deactivated2023]

Accurate ✔😅

[risenempire-deactivated20210506]

Reblog if you want to bonk you followers with the Valid stick(TM)

[bi-spy-pie]

*bonk*

[b00bconnoisseur]

*bonk*

[gothiccharmschool]

*bonk bonk bonk*

[b00bconnoisseur]

*bink*

[thelatestkate]

YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER WE ARE LUCKY YOU EXIST

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