If you’ve been visiting Cranky Fibro Girl for a while, you’ll have noticed that I haven’t been around much lately. Part of that has been due to our uprooting ourselves last fall and starting over in a new place. But another part of that is due to time: 12 years, to be exact. I’ve had the honor and the pleasure of sharing my stories with you here for the past 12 years. I’ve been so blessed by all the comments and emails you’ve sent me as we’ve shared this chronic illness journey together. And now the time has come for me to take a break.
I’ve sort of been on an unofficial hiatus, in that I haven’t been writing anything. But now I am officially announcing that I’m taking the rest of this year off, to let my mind know that it has permission to focus on other things. Or no things; I’ll. just have to wait and see. I’m creating a container of time and space and energy and permission and rest for myself, to do whatever I need to do to fill up and reset. To discover what I need to reconnect with the joy of writing and creating.
But before I leave for my blog break I have a request. I know there will be ideas percolating for me over the next 4 months. So when I come back I want to make sure that I’m writing about the things that matter to you, and creating things that help support you through your biggest challenges. If you would leave a comment with your answers to the two following questions, or email your answers to me through the contact form, I would really appreciate it.
I hope you all have a wonderful fall, and I will see you again in the new year!
Questions:
- What drew you to Cranky Fibro Girl, and what keeps you coming back to read more?
- . What are the top 1-3 challenges/problems/issues you face with your chronic illness?
Jenny,
I am saddened to hear that you will be, hopefully, temporarily leaving writing, but I understand that chronic illnesses sometimes have their own plans for us.
To answer your questions, I first came to your blog after I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2014 and had no idea how to deal with the pain physically, mentally, or emotionally. I was immediately drawn to the “realness” that you portray in your blogs and I find joy in your crankiness and snarky attitude. My family and friends do their best to support me through my chronic pain, but reading your journey and realizing I’m not alone and my feelings of anger and attitude are what help the most!
As for your second question, the biggest issues I face are doctors, relationships, and my own mental health. I’ve had a really hard time finding doctors that are willing to treat my chronic pain, so I rely on my PCP at the moment and stick to mostly holistic approaches. I was diagnosed at a young age (21), and trying to relate to my peers is hard. My boyfriend at the time completely shut me out and stopped supporting me, friends stopped coming around, and so forth. Most chronic illnesses can’t be seen on the outside and it’s hard to tell someone that you are in pain when you look physically fine on the outside. I have an inner struggle where I want to do the things that my peers do but my body says no, but I’m afraid my peers won’t understand the reasoning when I say I can’t join. Dealing with the chronic pain takes a large toll on my mental health. It’s a constant battle to stay cheery when you’re in pain and tired. I try to practice self-care as best as I can to combat this.
I hope your hiatus from writing gives you the nice break you need! Know we all look forward to the day you return!
Good for you! You deserve a break!
To answer your questions:
1. You are hilarious and I love you!
2. Top 3 problems (this week) are:
-Pain
– Crazy uncontrollable emotions
-Hot flashes
Enjoy your vacation. Look forward to hearing from you again!
I was drawn to your blog because of the name. I thought it was hilarious! I read a few of your posts and found that they were informative and funny. The things I struggle with the most are stress management and pain management. I hate that things in my life seem to continue to spiral out of my control, causing me to feel useless & worthless, spiraling me into depression. Any input on these along with your wit would be fantastic!
I was drawn to your blog because of the name of the blog ant the themes. I live with fibro for too long and some of your articles are very helpful. I try too to blog it is very dificult.
My big problems are the pain, the depression, isolation due to people not to undestand me and beeing more and more dificult to work for me,
I am so glad to hear that you are doing well and are off to tackle other things. We can’t let our lives be defined by this illness.
I found this blog through another blog with a link to it. It’s my first time here poking around to be honest.
The top 3 things I struggle with are: chronic fatigue, waking up in pain some nights for no apparent reason, and lack of drive to do anything.
As a fibromyalgia sufferer and therapist who works on fibro folks in the Albuquerque area, I know otherwise.
In my case my fibro was triggered by food allergies and cutting out those foods has made a world of difference. I also do Electro-Lymphatic Therapy to keep my lymph moving and Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) therapy. I use these as a practitioner and personally.
I would encourage people looking for natural ways to treat their symptoms to check out these therapies with therapists in their geographic areas.
https://haltmyswelling.com/therapies/electro-lymphatic-therapy
https://haltmyswelling.com/therapies/pulsed-electromagnetic-field-pemf-therapy
https://haltmyswelling.com/services/fibromyalgia-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-therapy