K.I.S.S.

KEEP IT SIMPLE SICKO.

i feel like crap this week which is why i am writng more often.

i ,um-we used to do a cartoon series with my soul mate,based on her symptoms which are extremely complex.one of my faves is ILL LIL ,the title character, sitting in an exam room and her doctor proudly announcing "Congratulations.They've named your symptoms after me!"
ain't it the truth.
Docs,like most people,are creatures of habit.when i was first diagnosed with diabetes in 1991,Kaiser Outpatients kept telling me "You shouldn't be in this much pain!" sez who?
now i got GREAT CARE from the Kaiser ICU and other than the usual complaints about too short visits and blunt dulled blood draw needles i think Kaiser did an adequate job with me but i was NOT a simple diabetes case as i was to learn much later.
years after i'd lost Kaiser i was sitting in a meeting of the Berkeley Commision on Disability and rocking back and forth in agonzied pain in my then manual wheelcahir (i still have it,just in case) when a woman came up to me and told me exactly what my symptoms were.
no,she was not psychic merely a fellow sufferer of firbromyalgia too.her name was Karen Craig,a good friend who died last year.once i had a name i could look it up online and see what little could be done for it.it didn't answer all my questions but it was something.

a short detour, i searched far and wide for doctors once my Kaiser ran out and i became Medi-Medi.one pond scum low life medico,who shall go unnnamed to protect the guilty, was highly recommended and and we went to it's office up four flights of stairs (no elevator) and trotted out all my paperwork. finally in fussy exasperation,it told me to get out as i was "TOO COMPLICATED". lucky i was a tired broken down old crip or i might have faced assault charges that day.
another time a drunk old medico told me i was not allergic to something which i was.my thoughts were 'oh,your're a fool.so noted'.
i love my current PCP almost more than chocolate ice cream and i'm not spilling her name no matter how much you beg.

so anyway,being me it wasn't JUST fibromyalgia,when my soul mate got a bulls eye rash which i recognized as Lyme disease (confirmed) then i went in too and got tested.CHRONIC LONG TERM LYME INFECTION atop everything else, research (and my lovely friend Kevin) pointed me at deep seated central nervous system involvement including bone deep chronic pain,stiff neck,muscle spasms,brain fog etc etc etc.(P.S. they got it wrong on HOUSE M.D.the bulls eye rash is transient NOT permanent and many of us get NO RASH AT ALL.)
so anyway i am finally getting treated for what ails me-imagine pushing a bean uphill with your nose,on gravel,in the dark,for decades.

so,for your own sakes
Keep It Simple Sicko
( and keep very good notes).

much love
mega