The ICI Experience:

Food Fight! Food Fight! Don't get mad, get political and get ahead!!! Send a message to Congress. It only takes a minute. Go ahead, do it.

Speak no evil , originally uploaded by starshine_diva . This is the best article I've seen yet on invisible disabilities. It's titled " 'But You Look So Good!' and 7 Other Things NOT to Say to a Person With a Non-Visible Disability " and it's from " DiversityInc Magazine: Diversity and the Bottom Line" . Imagine that. Something good from the bowels of corporate America. Forgive my attitude. It'll probably get better a few more years down the road from my experience with that government job where they threw me away because I had one disability too many. Government, corporate, they're all the same, right? OK, back to the good-- The kicker is the last section. It took me a minute to get it, what the 5 second difference meant, and it's so true . Here's the last section: This Means You If you think this won't be a concern until old age, take note: 75 percent of people with chronic conditions are younger than 65. One...

My time slot is: Wednesday 9/12 at 3 p.m. - 4 p.m. Pacific 5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Central 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. Eastern My topic is "Blogging About Your Illness".

Especially good if you live with chronic illness, I think. When I couldn't hold a book up to read it, not even a paperback, my therapist suggested that I join the Library for the Blind and Disabled. That was a wake up call. First time I really thought of myself as disabled. That was in 2001; I was first diagnosed in 1989. For all you unbelievers out there--you know who you are--I continued to fully function for 12 YEARS after the original diagnoses, and I can assure you I actually had the illnesses for many years before the diagnoses. But I digress. The Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled is for--you know. There are local branches all over the place. Call your local library to find out where yours is. So, the preceding paragraph was for the purpose of relating the following paragraph to the point of this blog--invisible chronic illness. I'm researching for my stint as host of the Invisible Chronic Illness Week (ICIW) Conference on "Blogging About Yo...

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http://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-pain/top-sites.html

Don't claim to have a cure that you can't back up while this lady is around: Veronica Thomas will take you to task for it if you do! See her article "Claims For a “Cure”- The Truth About Pills and Potions." Cure Alicsalutice Rheumatic-UK , originally uploaded by Michael Till .

S/he is from Canada but it sounds pretty right on for the U.S. too. sick , originally uploaded by jungmoon . From Dominie Bush's 8/4/07 newsletter--Item #5 : FMS/CFIDS SUFFERER IS CARETAKER, Daughter & Mother "Just quickly perusing your latest compilation (fantastic FM/CFS newsletter!!!!!) and as I read am struck by two things. 1) how many people with FM and CFS are prescribed a plethora of drugs to control or supposedly "cure" symptoms and 2) being desperately ill and socially ostracized we who have FM and CFS are almost every time I read about treatment, told that another medication can make the difference or is the missing magic bullet to cure us. Dominie, I have had this illness definitively diagnosed in 1996 but had it for at least ten years before that so for over 20 years I have had it and have tried everything that I have come across to try to get better - all kinds of drugs, eating programs, sleeping aids, exercises, rest, relocations, etc. and a...

Graceful Shoestring Acacia at twilight , originally uploaded by twas brillig . OUR DEAD AND DYING TREES www.newswithviews.com/Peterson/rosalind4.htm "What is the common dominator for deteriorating tree health in so many areas of the United States? Air pollution, white haze, climate change, increasing UV radiation, higher humidity caused persistent jet contrails, jet fuel emissions, lack of sunlight from persistent aging contrails or climate change produced by persistent jet contrails? There are over 50+ weather modification programs ongoing, according to NOAA records, in the United States. What impact does this chemical manipulation of our weather have on the regional micro-climates that are needed for tree, plant, and agricultural crop health? Artificial weather modification through the use of chemicals can impact all of us by reducing water supplies, changing agricultural crop production cycles, reducing crop production, and water availability. Since most experimental wea...

For background on this poem and its author visit the website below. This is What I Want To Be (dedicated to sufferers of Fibromyalgia) I live my life from days, to months, to years I live my life in sorrow, in fear, in tears For once in my life, this is what I want to be Forever glad, forever jovial, forever joyous, forever happy I have so many creative ideas in my heart and mind My weakness within stalls my soul and the world leaves me behind I have so many things that I want to do; want to say But, the beast within holds my spirit captive; I can’t get away I tire so easily; the fatigue is relentless I can’t seem to do the dishes, sweep the floor or even get dressed Because my heart is in pain; my body is in pain too Doc says, “There is nothing wrong.” Are you sure this is true? Take this pain away-tear it out from within me For it keeps me down and low, I can’t be what I want to be I want to be able to finish things that I start I want to have supportive friends that love me from the...

The concert's over but the site is still well worth looking at. I love the poster-- Rock Fibro!!!

The Endometriosis Association has it down pretty darn pat in Toxic Link to Endo : As explained in books including Our Stolen Future, Dying from Dioxin , and "The Endometriosis Sourcebook", scientists have come to the realization that certain chemical compounds, such as dioxin, have profound immunological and reproductive impacts at exposures far below the level known to cause cancer. These chemicals are known as endocrine disruptors and can mimic hormones and interfere with many physiological processes. Scientists are still researching the mechanisms that are used, but they already know that these man-made chemicals persist in the body for years. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are a group of dioxin-like chemicals that were used in industry until they were banned in the 1970s. Some PCBs persist in the environment for more than one hundred years. I expect that one day everything that's wrong with me that's not strictly due to the aging process will be proven to hav...

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Hello All, I know I've promised to follow up on all kinds of things here in my trusty blog. And I intend to do so. Eventually. But I have just been invited to host an online seminar (webinar?) during the National Invisible Chronic Illness Awareness Week Conference. And guess what subject they want me to pontificate upon? "Blogging About Your Illness"!!! Isn't that just perfect? I'm going to take this as a sign that it's time to get back to the point of this blog (which is the invisible chronic illness experience, in case you've forgotten with all of my fun wanderings lately). Information about scheduling for the Conference will be posted here as it becomes available. Woo Hoo!

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