posted
I've asked my friends this before, but I have to ask my friends here this personal question?
Like most of you, I have extreme fatigue, late stage lyme problems, pain in all of my body every day and proof by blood tests and spect scan...etc. etc. that I am sick.
But here is my question for us lymies.
Do you ever wonder if someone else could step into your body if they would feel and hurt as much as we do? Or would they just go on and deal with it as part of life?
I just wonder, b/c my husband is like the Energizer Bunny...he just keeps going...and so does my best friend with MS.
I just wonder...am I more sensitive to pain/fatigue/brain fog or would these people be as sick as me if they had my symptoms?
Just a question for people who share my illness and have people around them who are bunnies.
MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
no, if they stepped into your body suddenly they'd probably be shocked at how much it sucks to be us...
I imagine that after a few years of living with this stuff we're actually slightly desensitized/adapted to it, or at least to as much of it as one can reasonably tolerate.
Please dont' ever beat yourself up thinking you're 'too sensitive' to the pain and that someone else would just keep going- it's probably totally untrue and is a guilt trick your mind is playing on you.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
By the way, my boyfriend's the Energizer Bunny (he doesn't have Lyme), and I've noticed that he's WAYYY more floored by minor things like colds and stomach upsets than I ever am. I think the Lyme that makes me tougher about illness, actually.
I think that if we ever get completely better, we'll be in such spectacular health compared to 'normal' people, because of all these things we're learning, and because many of us are learning how to learn about our healthcare and our bodies.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
Thanks Maria! I thought the same thing as people cannot know what we all go thru day to day.
I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but sometimes, when they give me "that look" as to what the heck I'm talking about and why I can't do what they expect me to do........I wish I could share the experience for a minute or two.
No one can know what it's like to live in our skin, right?
When I got the shingles a few months ago, my doc and friends said "oh you poor thing...it is so painful, the worst pain you will ever know!".
I dealt with it without a hitch and thought it wasn't that bad...compared to what I live with everyday with lyme. Go figure.......
Posts: 867 | From PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
we posted at the same time, check my other post above
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
posted
Thanks Maria. Did you see my edit about having the shingles a bit ago? Funny how easily I dealt with this vs. lyme in general.
I got pity (though I didn't want it from folks who knew about having them) while they don't understand the lyme disease I've been dealing with for over 15 years.
I think you are right...if you haven't lived lyme, you have no clue what it does to us every day. Thanks for confirming this for me.
MariaA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9128
posted
yep...
I think part of the problem is that in this culture, we HATE a lack of answers to frightening medical things and we're still laboring under the delusion that medicine has it all figured out. So you're more likely to be pitied for something 'less threatening' than an illness that doesn't have an easy treatment timeline.
-------------------- Symptom Free!!! Thank you all!!!!
LisaS
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10581
posted
I have often wondered this too. And I think Maria is right that actually we are desensitized to feeling bad.
Last week I had a couple reallly horrible days at work. Actually they were supposed to be my days off but another caregiver called in with a cold.
So they call me, afterall I only have Lyme. So anyways, I went in but thought wow I feel a little worse than normal.
But I got through the shift and then the next day filled in again. And again I felt pretty sick but managed to finish another second shift.
When I got home I thought Im going to take my temp cuz I feel so shaky and sure enough I had a 99.1 temp. Which for me is high.
Turns out I had the same virus that was going around the home, I jsut didnt realize it because I am so used to being sick. And with all the ups
& downs of Lyme how can you tell if youre sick with something else or just having a bad day? So yeah, I think we move mountains every day that we get up and function at all!
quote:Originally posted by MariaA: no, if they stepped into your body suddenly they'd probably be shocked at how much it sucks to be us...
I imagine that after a few years of living with this stuff we're actually slightly desensitized/adapted to it, or at least to as much of it as one can reasonably tolerate.
I totally agree!! I'm SOOO much better, but I'm sure some people who had the few remaining symptoms I have would be complaining about them!!!
I know not to complain, as it was way worse before!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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