2018 has been a long hard year for me, so it’s fun to go back and see the top chronic illness posts for the year. Every year around this time I reevaluate whether I want to keep blogging or not. I’ve been doing it since 2011 and I keep wondering when it will be time to quit. Going through these posts serves as a nice reminder that blogging has a purpose, and that purpose is to connect with other people with chronic illness. So with that said here’s the top chronic illness posts for Chronic Mom in 2018.
1. Managing Fibromyalgia in heat and humidity
Apparently I’m not the only one who has a hard time with hot weather because this was my #1 post for 2018. The hotter it gets the more my pain levels rise and so I’m always looking for new ways to cope.
2. 5 reasons Fibromyalgia is the best fake disease
This post has dethroned from it’s previous top spot in 2017, though it continues to be my most popular post of all time. It maintains that position because it comes up when someone googles “fibromyalgia is fake” or it’s other variations. I take deep pleasure in this, though it does lead to some nasty comments.
3. What is the Hummingbird and how does it relieve pain?
I had no idea this post was still popular until I checked my stats. It looks like I’m not the only one who is continually trying to find new ways to deal with chronic pain.
4. What it’s really like being on opioids for chronic pain
I wrote this post in 2016 when the opioid hysteria was just beginning, but the post remains popular as more and more people in pain are losing their medication. I look back at 2016 and it seems like a simpler time. People were being sent to pain management instead of getting help from their GPs, but they were still able to get some medication for the most part. These days I don’t know anyone whose been able to maintain the dosage they were on. At best patients are being weaned down and forced to pay for pricey drug tests, at worse people are being taken off their medication cold turkey and committing suicide. Let’s hope that 2019 will bring some good news on this front.
5. 5 tips for cleaning with chronic illness
Keeping a house clean with chronic illness sometimes seems impossible (especially when you live with 3 healthy people who make a lot of messes). Apparently I’m not the only one who struggles to manage this. Balancing my perfectionist tenancies with my physical abilities feels like a losing battle most days.
6. 10 must have kitchen tools for the chronically ill
I hate cooking, and cooking with chronic illness doesn’t make my life any simpler. I try to keep to the basics when cooking, but dealing with three different people’s likes and dislikes makes things even more complicated. So of course having the right tools in the kitchen can be a huge help. I’m obsessed with my instant pot and continue to insist that it’s second to my roomba in its importance.
7. How do deal with people who don’t believe you’re sick
Proving your illness to people sucks, and I’m clearly not the only one who struggles with it. Healthy people wrestle with the idea that people with chronic illness aren’t just exaggerating or faking because they’re lazy. This can make life for their sick friends and loved ones hellish. People with chronic illness just want to be treated with thought and consideration.
8. What to wear when you’re clothing causes pain
One of the concept I’ve never been able to explain to people is how clothing causes pain. It seems ridiculous to someone who hasn’t experienced it, but the wrong type of clothing doesn’t just cause discomfort, it causes agony. I spend my life looking for loose, seamless clothing that won’t irritate my skin and increase my pain levels.
9. 4 myths about being on opioids for chronic pain
This post tackles myths like: people in pain get high on pain killers, people in pain are addicted, and there are better alternatives to chronic pain than opioids. Most of the comments on the post are from people in pain who are suffering, but my hope is that it also reaches people who are uninformed about chronic pain
10. 5 tips for faking chronic illness
Most of the time my satire goes unappreciated by the chronic illness community. I get some angry comments about how this is not funny, and I shouldn’t joke about such a serious topic. I ignore those comments because my satirical posts get some of the highest google hits. I take pleasure in the fact that people who google faking chronic illness land on this post.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed visiting some old chronic illness posts and discovering some new ones!
I thought for a while that there weren’t many who have fibromyalgia and can not deal with the heat and humidity. People think I am nuts to like the cooler weather so much more. I like the cooler weather because I do not ache or hurt as much.
I agree it is hard with fibromyalgia because there are so many people who do not believe you. It is especially hard when some of them might be friends or family.