< Insert Something Inspirational/Educational >

Hey there fellow Fibro peeps, supporters, readers, and the person who accidentally happened upon this blog and doesn't know how or why they're here.

The last few days I've been searching for inspiration to help me write a new post. This is what I came up with...

....nada/zip/zero/nothing.

So today I'm literally going to word vomit the things on my mind. They may not flow well, and some of it might not even make any sense. Here we go...

My elbows hurt. And my shoulders. I'm sitting with an ice pack on my lower back. I came to work today in spite of having pains shooting down my right hip. Mostly because I missed work last week and two weeks before that. I'm not interested in making it a habit. My body is the most frustrating thing in the world. Jokes are constantly made about how complicated women are, that men (and women) can't ever understand the mood swings, double standards, illogical conclusions, and manipulative actions. My husband is always trying to predict how I will react to things. Any husband does this, I think. It's their job to know their wife well. I feel like I can understand his frustration with me finally. Currently I'm looking at my body and my mind as two separate beings. My mind is constantly trying to predict how my body will react, what consequences I'll have to endure depending on the activities I partake in. If I could understand my body and the repercussions I'd have to endure, I feel like I would HAPPILY walk on egg shells in order to not provoke the pain I'm experiencing right now. Today, right now, I would do anything to not feel like this.

Today is the first day I've come to work here without make-up on. I literally have not done that since I worked at Best Buy. Usually I'd be self-conscious about it. Today, for the first time in a really long time, I truly don't care. I've been asked, "Isn't there something you can take? Like ibuprofen?" 

If I'd felt like it, I would've laughed at that statement. But instead I answered, "Nope. Can't take anything but Tylenol and it doesn't do enough to matter. I took too much ibuprofen and other NSAIDs as a teenager and now my stomach is torn up over it." 

I don't WANT to have to rely on pain meds. I hate taking the amount of medications I take right now. I'm to the point now though where when my body freaks out like this for weeks at a time, I wonder how I am ever going to maintain a career. Or go to school for that matter. I'd be a huge idiot not to take advantage of finishing my bachelors while I work here. Not to mention Jeremy can go back for his...and if I'm here long enough, by the time my kids are of age they can come here. I can't imagine any of that happening. It all seems impossible. I don't know how I'm going to get through the day, let alone having kids in the next few years.

I'm afraid: absolutely terrified that my employers patience/understanding will run out. I'm terrified of going through what I went through at BBY. But it becomes difficult for someone without Chronic Pain to continue believing that yes, in fact, I do STILL hurt. Yes, it's been days/weeks/months, but it hasn't gone away. There isn't a quick, or long-term, "fix" for it. All you can do is learn to maneuver around it. And sometimes, Fibro likes to bring a gun to a knife fight. It isn't fair, but that's the way it works. 

It isn't acceptable to miss work consistently. Disability is difficult to get approved for. Even if I did apply for it, I would be basically consenting to never working again. I would be admitting defeat. And I wouldn't make as much money. Contributing to my marriage financially is important to me. Sometimes I can work. Sometimes I can't. But with Disability, you can't go back and forth from day to day or week to week. You choose Disability, therefore you are Disabled. 

Its not being Disabled that scares me. It's giving up on working. I like to work when I feel alright. I like to help people. I like trading crazy stories with my friends and family about the people I had to deal with throughout the day. 

But some days those same crazy people I deal with can cause me to go into a downward spiral if my nerves get bad enough. 

Nerves bad=Pain=Fatigue=Missing Work=Nerves Bad...etc. 

You get the idea.

I think I'm just going to leave it at that. No conclusion. No closure. Just "here ya go."

My word vomit.