I am so much more then an illness

… but the damn illness infiltrates everything I do.  Right now, I am (well I was), filling out forms for the 3 specialists I’ll be seeing this month.

One is an ear, nose and throat (ent), for the ear infection that I’ve had since August.  Their form covers all kinds of problems with the head and neck region.  It’s only 3 pages long.

The second is a gastroenterologist for my intestines…. they’ve basically quit working lately.  Really, all this month I’ve been sick sick sick with something like a flu and stabbing pain in my side in addition to the "normal" fibromyalgia and the chronic ear infection.  Those forms are 10 pages long, requiring the details of every illness you ever thought of having!  Some of the questions are a little weird, like "have you had a change in glove / hat size?"  Strangely, I have!  My gloves and hat from last year don’t fit, even though I’ve lost weight.  I checked a lot of yes boxes there.

Then there’s the new rhuematologist.  I don’t like the one I’m seeing now, he just throws drugs at me and tells me that "it’s to be expected with fibromyalgia" when I feel crummy… maybe it is to be expected, but what are we going to do about it?  I mean, I need to be able to work and I’d like to not feel like crap all the time.  That’s the longest form, but they used tiny fonts so it’s on fewer pages, very sneaky.

All in all, I’m not looking forward to any of these appointments and I’ve barely felt up to writing lately.