I do apologize, but my recovery has been slower than I expected and I’ve had another trip to the emergency room. This one was due to not taking good enough care of myself, as I got dehydrated and my blood…
It Isn’t Karma or Punishment
We did nothing, in this or any other life, to deserve illness. We aren’t being punished, nor are healthier people being rewarded. I’m all for finding out about the physical and biological bases of our conditions, as that information is…
How do you explain it?
How do you explain your illness to those who don’t have it? While I haven’t come up with a good way to explain chronic fatigue syndrome, I describe fibromyalgia as a full-body migraine. Anyone who has ever had a migraine…
Music ‘can reduce chronic pain’
While I doubt the IRS is going to let us claim iPods as medical equipment for tax deductions any time soon, it’s well worth experimenting to see what music soothes each of us. From BBC News via the Net-Gold list:…
Other FMS/Chronic Illness Blogs/Casts?
I’ll record episode 3 as soon as my sound tech (aka Sam, my partner) is available. Right now, though, I’m in the mood to plump up my blogroll. Suggest other blogs and podcasts about fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, or chronic illness,…
My Apologies
I must apologize for my absence here and the lack of a podcast last week! I’ve just gotten home from a brief hospital stay, and I didn’t have internet access there. I have plenty of material to cover, although it…
Dyspareunia – Painful Sex
Dyspareunia is one of the common symptoms of fibromyalgia, or as a co-existing problem. I don’t usually look at Wired for this kind of thing, but the article When Sex Is a Pain has some good ideas for dealing with…
Episode 2
Episode 2 This week we talked about distractions, delegating, and defining yourself. I recommended Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn as a good introduction to mindfulness,…
Books About Fibromaylgia
I’ve posted about online resources, as well as mentioning some periodicals that are good offline resources. Now I want to share some of the books I recommend to others who are learning more about fibromyalgia. The First Year: Fibromyalgia: An…
The Neurology of Chronic Pain
My Pain, My Brain by Melanie Thernstrom gives us a look at a study being done at Stanford University. Subjects view an area of the brain that is involved in the perception of pain via a functional magnetic resonance imaging…