Fibromyalgia and Endless Appointments and Judgmental Folks

Topics: Fibromyalgia and..., My Network, Traits

Some­times I feel inse­cure about the quan­tity of med­ical appoint­ments I have had this year.  But today I real­ized something.

If I don’t jump all over minor issues, as they arise, I’ll be mugged by a flare up… even­tu­ally.  So, to those of you who don’t under­stand the nature of chronic pain con­di­tions, and think I’m a wuss who spends too much time with a doc­tor… keep it to your­self.  Please.

Your judg­ments don’t enrich the world.  In fact, I don’t think they do any­thing but reas­sure you that your over-scheduled, passive-aggressive life will in fact make you bet­ter than me (although the fact that you spend your time judg­ing me shows quite can­didly that you don’t actu­ally believe that).

And, as for me, I will work on car­ing less what the judg­men­tal crowd thinks.  I know I’m a “grown-up” now, and should be over car­ing… but I’m not.

So there it is, short and not-so-sweet… another life les­son from the shame­less school­mas­ter that is chronic pain.

Existing Comments

    Comment by Nicole Gilbert on January 5, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

    I know you wrote this months ago, but I’m just read­ing it now. It’s so right on. It’s the whole, “But you look fine” thing. Yeah? Well a per­son 30 sec­onds away from a fatal aneurysm looks fine too, doesn’t she?

    If you’re not bleed­ing from an artery, peo­ple some­times can’t under­stand. Fibro is like migraines — if you don’t have it, you won’t understand.

    I have tons of dr. appoint­ments, too. With tons of dif­fer­ent doc­tors. I feel like I’m sup­port­ing the entire AMA! It’s stu­pid not to go to the dr. when you need to and we need to!

    You have a great attitude!

    Comment by Wendy Burnett on February 7, 2010 @ 9:23 pm

    Kate —

    You tell ‘em. One thing we DON’T need is more judg­men­tal folks telling us what wusses we are, we judge our­selves harshly enough as it is.

    Fibro will eat us alive if we let it, and any­one who doesn’t have it can only have the vaguest idea of what it’s like, so they have absolutely no right to judge how we choose to deal with it.

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