The ICI Experience:

Sorry I haven't been able to put out any original blog posts for several months.  I'm going through something and I can't write about it yet because I'm not sure exactly what it is. I think I need to get through it and get some perspective before I can write about it.  I'm not even able to read much right now (chronic migraine) but I do still occasionally come across something that I identify with strongly or am really moved by... like the post below that I'm reblogging.  It's got me to thinking along the right track, I hope.  And I hope it will help others also.   Lost  in Grief Originally posted on Then Everything Changed : A Glimpse of Life With and Without Invisible Illness. Posted on June 19, 2014 by leitis23 "For the majority of people coping with chronic pain or illness it came on suddenly while we were innocently living normal lives.  Whether we were nine or fifty years old chronic pain brought about ...

... I shall share with you this wonderful post about a surgery very similar to mine that happened this month.  But it's from the perspective of the waiting room, by Erin's friend, Marissa.  I'd say she's a very good friend.  The post is hilarious AND it made me cry.  It's great.  Sigh. Putting the ME in EndoMEtriosis-Part 1 ,  on Erin's Guide to Living Blog If you've read my blog at all, you know I like to put pictures in my posts.  This is a word picture, but I think it goes. Erin & Marissa, I hope you're new online friends.  And to all of you out there that I've met online (NOT just Facebook!) since I started blogging in 2007, I'm really, really thankful for you.  Especially since I moved in 2011 and had less than a year to make face to face friends in my new city before I had to start figuring what was wrong with me this time.  It's been a long hard road and I'm not at the end of it yet.  But I know al...

I found this on the Beyond Basics Physical Therapy blog. It's a great, fun post about getting mega corporations that make "feminine hygiene" products without any kind of ingredient list anywhere on the label. What's up with that? I mean really!

Hi All, I'm participating in this study and I told Megan Fulsom that I know some people with FM (haha) and I would spread the word around that she's looking for participants. Megan is the person who is doing the study to complete her Master's thesis, and thereby her Masters in Dietetics at Indiana State U. Megan is no stranger to multiple chronic illesses; she also has Fibromyalgia.  If you can, please give her a hand in completing her study.  Life is giving her a hard time of it. When her study is completed it will be the only one of its kind dealing with FM and whether an anti inflammation diet helps or not.   Here's the link to her FB Advertisement:  https://www.facebook.com/sherrillynn/posts/10154258273365074 . ​

I noticed this as soon as I started reading Endo and Pelvic Pain websites and blogs, a few months after these new symptoms (yes, I'm going to write all about it; I just need to get into the swing of blogging again before jumping into the deep end) started in September of 2012:  Many of the people who write about these topics call themselves "sufferers." I started being diagnosed with ICIs  in 1989 (Endo, Fibro and multiple food allergies that year) and I quickly learned that I preferred to refer to myself and others as survivors or persons with chronic illness X .  Even referring to myself as a fibromyalgiac, for instance, tends to give the illness a feeling of power over me.  None of the ICIs I have define ME, so I don't use terms like that either.   Sufferer connotes a victim mentality to me.  It's OK to wallow in the pool of being a victim for awhile, but I don't think anyone will get out of that sucky, I-feel-sorry-for-me-so-you-should too plac...

**Public Service Announcement** by Laurel Wells Thompson (feel free to share this far and wide, with attribution)   HOW NOT TO BE A DICK TO YOUR INFERTILE FRIEND: CONVERSATIONAL EDITION About 11% of women are unable to conceive within one year of "trying," so if you are a person that breathes air, you have probably encountered one of us. It's very tempting to offer words of comfort or advice, or to ask questions, but very often there is a disconnect between what you're saying, and what your infertile friend (heretofore referred to as YIF) hears. Allow me to translate some of the most common attempts at sympathy: You: "Just relax!" YIF hears: This is your fault, if only you could be like everyone else you could make this happen. You: "Everything happens for a reason/it's all in God's plan" YIF hears: You're clearly not cut out to be a parent/God wants everyone to be happy except for you. You: "Why don...

Today is seven years since I published my first blog post on 5/19/2007, Yay, I'm Blogging! I haven't published a post on The ICIE since April of 2012 so it seemed fitting that I come back to blogging on my anniversary.  I haven't been writing, but a lot of people have still been reading my existing blog posts; I've been getting hundreds of hits per week the whole time I've been gone! I just love those Blogger/Google stats. I'll make a long story short as to why I've been absent from the blogging world for two years.  In 2011 I started volunteering at least once a week at our local art center.  I did that for about a year, then I started to work there part time as a staff member.  I became the Volunteer Coordinator in July of 2012.