By Guest on 24 December, 2010
Eliot Renard is a genderqueer, feminist, socialist Chicagoan who enjoys making math and science accessible and fun for students through various online tutoring programs. Ze also has a health blog, personal blog and tumblr, because compartmentalizing is fun. This is the second post of a short series; part one, “Rocky Beginnings,” can be read here. [...]
Posted in guest post | Tagged chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, chronic pain conditions, depression, family, family dynamics, fibromyalgia, guest post, personal, personal stories, social attitudes
By Guest on 16 December, 2010
Eliot Renard is a genderqueer, feminist, socialist Chicagoan who enjoys making math and science accessible and fun for students through various online tutoring programs. Ze also has a health blog, personal blog and tumblr, because compartmentalizing is fun. I began experiencing the symptoms of what I now know to be depression, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue [...]
Posted in guest post | Tagged childhood illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain conditions, depression, family, family dynamics, fibromyalgia, guest post, mental health, personal, social attitudes
By Annaham on 9 December, 2010
I have an ongoing peeve that relates to medication and social attitudes surrounding it: often, for some people on various sides of the political spectrum, trashing Big Pharma translates into trashing people who use prescription medications at all, for a variety of health conditions — especially for chronic conditions, both of the mental health and [...]
Posted in gender, marketing, media and pop culture, medical practice, normality | Tagged advertising, Big Bad Pharma, depression, drugs, drugs are bad mmm'kay, fibro, fibromyalgia, gender, media and pop culture, medicine, prescriptions, wtf
By Annaham on 16 November, 2010
Peggy Orenstein for the New York Times Magazine: The code-words of breast cancer awareness Fast-forward to today, when, especially during October, everything from toilet paper to buckets of fried chicken to the chin straps of N.F.L. players look as if they have been steeped in Pepto. If the goal was “awareness,” that has surely been [...]
Posted in recommended reading | Tagged age, asexuality, awareness, birth control, breast cancer, cerebral palsy, chronic pain conditions, coming out, fibromyalgia, fraud, homeopathy, medicine, mental illness, normality, post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, queer
By Annaham on 8 November, 2010
One of the more bizarre stereotypes (if one can call it that) about people with fibromyalgia is that we obsess over “every little ache and pain,” to the detriment of ourselves and much to the apparent annoyance of the “normal” people around us. Here’s the thing: If I were to obsess over my pain in [...]
Posted in 101, blaming, normality, othering, social attitudes | Tagged abled privilege, chronic illness, chronic pain conditions, disabled people are scary, fibromyalgia, myths and misconceptions, normal is only one option, pain management, positive thinking, rethinking social norms, social attitudes, this all sounds awfully familiar
By Annaham on 14 October, 2010
I am one of those people who often cannot ask for help. At times, I am so afraid of seeming weak, or whiny, or overly-sensitive, or dependent on other people that I tend to either ignore my own needs until I start flailing around at the last minute in order to not get overwhelmed, or [...]
Posted in bodies, feminism, gender, social attitudes | Tagged daily life, disability is a feminist issue, effortless perfection, fibromyalgia, gender, help, medical care, perfectionism, personal, personal stories, rethinking social norms, social attitudes, stereotypes, unexpected obstacles
By Annaham on 25 September, 2010
[Image description: Four bottles of perfume in front of and resting upon some books; the bottles are labeled "Australian Copperhead," "Banded Sea Snake," "Cottonmouth," and "Asp Viper," respectively. Image courtesy of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.] Today, I am taking a page from amandaw’s awesome series “Things That Make My Life Easier” and have chosen to [...]
Posted in happy posts | Tagged black phoenix alchemy lab, BPAL, chronic pain, chronic pain conditions, fibromyalgia, good things, happiness, love, made of awesome, scents, treatment
By Annaham on 24 August, 2010
Wheelchair Dancer: Body Matters, Edges, and Disability We all experience limitations and restrictions. Not all of those — like not being able to speak a second language — are disabilities. The second language example is a true comment, and I would have thought that it was a pretty obviously bad comparison. But it and other [...]
Posted in recommended reading | Tagged abled privilege, autism, cancer, conceptions of disability, disability 101, exercise, feminism, fibromyalgia, gender, news, news media, race, technology, temporarily able-bodied, white privilege, whiteness
By Annaham on 7 August, 2010
My beginning is like this: I was born a full three months before my expected arrival. I apparently couldn’t wait the whole nine months to come into the world. This early arrival was rife with complications, however: a brain hemorrhage, one collapsed lung (I still have under-armpit scars from the surgery), and, the kicker — [...]
Posted in blaming, bodies, identity | Tagged cerebral palsy, fibromyalgia, just world theory, personal, personal stories
By Annaham on 24 July, 2010
To begin, rather pithily: I have had very mixed experiences with medical professionals throughout my life. Some have been fantastic. Some have been middle-of-the-road. And, as you might expect to hear from a person with a chronic pain condition, some have been absolutely awful. Recently, I had a fantastic experience in a consultation with the [...]
Posted in happy posts, medical practice, small stories, social attitudes | Tagged cerebral palsy, doctors, fibromyalgia, medical care, medications, pain management, personal stories, surgery
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