Ah, confirmation.

[icarus]

Found on a tombstone: "I told you I was sick."

Went to dinner with The Puppy and wildernessguru last night.

The Puppy looked at me as we walked to the Thai restaurant and said, "Miss M..." (I have nicknames, too) "...you look burnt."

That makes me feel so much better. Yeah. I am.

It's like feeling sick for a while, and going to the doctor who tells you, "Oh yes. You have blah-blah-blah!" Weirdly enough, just identifying it makes you feel better.

Comments

[thereallyle.livejournal.com]

Weirdly enough, just identifying it makes you feel better.
I don't see how that's weird. I've gone to doctor after doctor wishing for that result and getting "We have no idea, all your test results are negative." So yeah, it's wonderful to know what's wrong. Or to have your boss ask if you're feeling alright instead of crack a joke about how you should do a better job of "acting" if you're going to leave early saying you're sick. (I'm sure he was kidding, but gahhh...)

Anyway... enough about me. I hope you feel better soon! *hug*

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

oh yes, getting a solid identification is wonderful

*waits for the day she'll get hers*

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

hey, I know you don't know me, but I saw your comment on icarus's page and just had to reply to your comment

that acting crack from your boss, gah does that hit a nerve...most days when I feel like utter crud, people can't tell b/c I look perfectly fine, it's the syndrome of "but you don't look sick" there's even a website titled that

there are days when people pass me in the hall at work and they ask me 'how's it going' or 'how are you' that I'm tempted to tell them the friggin truth instead of giving the expected polite answer of 'fine' or 'okay'. after all, they're just asking to be polite and acknowledge your prescene, not that they really wanna know how you actually feel

btw, hi! I'm LttleDvl and I rant often...
how are you? lol

[thereallyle.livejournal.com]

NO KIDDING! It makes me feel so grateful when I actually look pale and sick instead of fine.

The truth? Rather sluggish and a bit lonely. Contemplating who's in town and might not actually be insanely busy. I'm living in the middle of a city called the University of Massachusetts, and I barely know anyone here, so it's kinda annoying when I decide I'm not in the mood to be all introverted.

Ranting is cool. I don't mind ranting at all. ^—^

[thereallyle.livejournal.com]

My "solid" identification turned out to be somatization, with no nice concrete cure. Moving out of my parents' house turned out to be the best cure I could have possibly found, though. XD

Good luck, I hope yours is more concrete!

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

well so far, the leaders in the race are either rheumatoid arthritis or lupus

neither of which have a cure, so it'll only get worse as I age

sounds like fun!

[thereallyle.livejournal.com]

Joy, what fun!

I thought I had CFS for a while, but a lot of the symptoms are similar to somatization, which is a bit easier to do something about. If it were Somatization Disorder (http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/somatizationdis.htm), that's just as hard to cure if not worse, but my variation is different and easier to deal with. It had just as many of the symptoms, and some doctors might have made that diagnosis, but the cause and cure turned out to be different.

People with that disorder tend to be very dramatic and attention-seeking and resist the suggestion that any of it doesn't have a physiological cause, unlike me. Usually they'll resist seeing a psychologist of any kind. I didn't, and that made a big difference. My therapist and hypnotist made much more of a difference than all the doctors did. (Hypnosis can manage pain and stress really well, and I've been doing self-hypnosis.) Sometimes it still gets bad enough to land me in Urgent Care at my university, but not once a week or so anymore. And when I do go there they finally have found meds that work for me for headaches and nausea! WOOT!

Sorry about the super long comment. Heh.

Can I steal your icon?

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

sure! but i swiped it from mariusgirl so you might want to shoot her a line - she's awesome at icons

i haven't had to go to the hospital for it (hopefully i won't)

[thereallyle.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

Urgent Care isn't quite the same as a hospital. They send you to a real hospital if it's that bad, but they can deal with it when I've got a godawful migraine and can't stop throwing up. And they have a lovely squishy chair I can go sit in while I'm waiting for the shots to kick in! In a quiet dark room! :D

[enname.livejournal.com]

Isn't that what Spike Milligan wanted on his tombstone?

The unbearable cuteness of nicknames. :)

At least he didn't say 'wow, you look like shit!', which is always so conducive to making said person feel better. Burnt is.. much more subtle and probably more accurate.

Ermm.. and this comment is now done.

[ansku]

Not weird, I think it's a relief when people agree with what I've supposed from the start, because it spares me from explaining myself and defending my own theory and at the same time it's comforting that the other person doesn't think it's anything else (potentially worse)...

[ansku]

I'll join the jumping to conversations :D

I'm so grateful I'm naturally pale and easily sickly looking, it makes life so much easier when you don't actually have to pull out a thermometer to show that yes, I really am sick right now... especially when you are sick often. However, I tend to get that "there's nothing wrong with you" from actual doctors, and that annoys the crap out of me. One even dared to tell me that I didn't ever actually have epilepsy (the weird type that actually gets better when you get older, haven't had any symptoms for over ten years or so and it was never bad enough to get any grand mals, only small stuff) because it's so often misdiagnosed, despite all the symptoms I used to have and the numerous EEG tests I went through that showed typical inconsistencies. And he got that all from a single glance at my medical history, without asking any questions or ever meeting me before. No, wait, I almost forgot. He did ask a single question: what does this term here mean - because he didn't recognize the name of the illness! (The specific type, not epilepsy in general.) That so didn't give me any confidence with his abilities... I wasn't even there for anything related, just getting my throat checked for potential angina or something like that. I really didn't enjoy having to defend my previous doctors' proficiency when I could barely talk for my hurting throat... it was somehow so cheapening, because that clearly implied that no, there's nothing wrong with my brain, I'm just a weirdo who enjoys faking episodes... especially since I was so ashamed of them when I had them and other kids picked on me because of them, oh I can so easily see why I'd like to fake them... not.

Huh. I didn't mean to rant... Sorry :) Still haven't forgiven the bastard and it was like eight years ago or something. Too bad he wasn't even the only one.

[lttledvl.livejournal.com]

you don't want to join the fray?

lol.....

nifty alien icon btw

[enname.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have much to add. I've roomed with too many med students and doctors and know the diagnostic process, know that you have to be very specific and proactive most of the time to even get one to listen and thus I poke and prod until they head in the right direction. Admittedly I always end up with things that are really... unfixable and management only so...

Hehe, thanks. Not sure it is an alien, but I think it is pleasantly bizarre. :)

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

Found on a tombstone: "I told you I was sick."

*dies lauhging* <-- They can put that on my tombstone, too. ;-) Feel better soon!

[rane-ab.livejournal.com]

Except, you know, with better spelling. *facepalms*

[harveywallbang.livejournal.com]

oh, it really does.
my counselor agreed that i do in fact have a very very stressful life, with tons of individual stressors pulling me in all directions. and i felt better. because he validated me. and sometimes, that's all you need. a little validation...
it's nice when other people notice how much of yourself you're putting into your work and whatnot.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It is, and thank you. :)