Julie Ryan from Counting My Spoons

Julie Ryan began her blog Counting My Spoons in 2010 when her journey with Fibromyalgia began. The title comes from the Spoon Theory written by Christine Miserandino that explains energy in terms of how many spoons we have on any given day. 

These days Julie does not spend a lot of time counting her spoons as she has learned how to manage her symptoms and is helping others to do the same. Julie believes that we are all much more than our illnesses. (she lives with migraine, TMJ issues, endometriosis, a thyroid condition as well as fibromyalgia.) 

I’ve learned how to manage my illness and I hope that I can help you do the same. 

At the very least, I hope I can help you live an inspired life despite your chronic illness. Take a look at what’s helped me the most with managing my illness.

Julie is quite a prolific writer who shares many helpful, informative posts at her blog including:

• 16 Things Fibromyalgia Sufferers Need to STOP Doing
• What Chronic Illness Does to a Marriage
• 10 Things You Should Never Say to Someone With Fibromyalgia
• 8 Things Those with Chronic Illness Need to Know

You can keep up with her posts by subscribing to receive notification emails as they are posted. 

You can also follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Pain Awareness Month

As September is Pain Awareness Month and 100% of people with Fibromyalgia experience pain, I thought it was fitting to share quotes about pain and specifically chronic pain. 

Chronic pain is considered to be any pain that lasts for 3 months or longer and that is definitely the case in Fibro. 

Chronic pain is widely believed to represent disease itself. It can be made much worse by environmental and psychological factors. Chronic pain persists over a longer period of time than acute pain and is resistant to most medical treatments. It can—and often does—cause severe problems for patients. NINDS

“Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.” George Orwell, 1984

“I'm in pain all the time,' I said, 'and if I gave into it then I'd do nothing.” 
Bernard Cornwell, The Empty Throne

“If I only could explain 
How much I miss
that precious moment 
when I was free
from the shackles of chronic pain.” 
Jenni Johanna Toivonen

“The erosion of an effective patient-physician relationship has no place when dealing with chronic pain. Worst of all, dismissing the patient's pain is as devastating as crushing a patient's hope.” 
― Melissa Cady, Paindemic: A Practical and Holistic Look at Chronic Pain

Please feel free to share these quotes and images. 

Fibromyalgia is it real?

This is a common question that is asked: Is Fibromyalgia real or is it fake? Because pain is invisible many people who have fibromyalgia have been questioned and judged. It is a largely invisible disease that causes many symptoms that cannot be tested such as fatigue, stiffness and muscle tenderness.

The symptoms of Fibromyalgia were mentioned in the 1800's and called muscular rheumatism. Even though this group of symptoms have been known for a long time they are still questioned and treated with suspicion. Even some doctors may imply that these symptoms are all in the patients head.

We are here to tell you that Fibromyalgia is real. Many of the people who are part of this Directory have been living with this condition for over 10 years. While nobody, as yet, knows the cause of Fibromyalgia we can tell you that it is a complex pain syndrome with patterns of tenderness on both sides of the body. In 1990 the American College of Rheumatology established guidelines for diagnosing fibromyalgia. It is a very common condition with over 10 million people in America, alone, trying to live with it. 

To find out more about it please read some of the articles below or visit some other weeks of this Fibro link up where people share their stories about living with Fibromyalgia.

It's Fibro Friday week 190

Yes 190 weeks of Fibro Friday! Thank you for being here. A big thank you to all the regulars who join in to help and share information about this chronic illness called Fibromyalgia. Welcome to all the newbies too.

Craft, animals, rotisserie chicken, netflix, natural disasters and activity trackers... What have they got to do with Fibromyalgia? You can find out by clicking here.