Working?

I’m work­ing on a new pod­cast episode. Really!

And I’d like very much to hear from you. Are you work­ing? Have you had to change any­thing about work since devel­op­ing a chronic ill­ness? Have any of you gone back to work after tak­ing some time off? Any­body will­ing to be interviewed?

Thanks!

January 22, 2008  Tags: disability, employment, hiatus, return to work, work, working  Posted in: disability, employment  4 Comments

Pain cures for women; Migraines from low-energy light bulbs

I’ve had these two sto­ries book­marked to post here for a bit, so it seems past time for me to actu­ally do it.

The best new pain cures, with a focus on women

Many women have a tough time find­ing the right kind of relief for their pain –and for good rea­son: Until recently, experts hadn’t actu­ally stud­ied women’s pain specif­i­cally, and most research wasn’t con­ducted with a woman’s hor­mones and physique in mind. All that’s chang­ing, though.

Docs now know that to ban­ish our aches, they must develop treat­ments for­mu­lated for women’s bod­ies. What’s more, researchers are also look­ing for — and find­ing — ways to head pain off at the pass, so those of us with chronic trou­bles such as migraine, fibromyal­gia, or back­ache don’t have to be hob­bled by pain on a daily basis. Here, how the new research will help you live an (almost) pain-free life. Health.com: Smart ways to ban­ish pain

It’s def­i­nitely good news that they’re doing the research, at least! There’s good infor­ma­tion here on how estro­gen and other hor­mones affect the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem. The arti­cle specif­i­cally men­tions treat­ment for migraines and other headaches, fibromyal­gia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

There’s a def­i­nite anti-painkiller bias in the arti­cle, unfor­tu­nately. The author doesn’t seem to grasp the fact that ibupro­fen isn’t enough “pre­ven­tive med­i­cine” for some of us, but if you can look past that it’s a decent article.

Low-energy bulbs ’cause migraine’

I’ve had con­cerns about this issue myself. Flu­o­res­cent bulbs have always been a prob­lem for me, and the “low-energy” bulbs that are so pop­u­lar now are flu­o­res­cent. The flick­er­ing of flu­o­res­cent bulbs can also trig­ger seizures in epilep­tics. While man­u­fac­tur­ers claim that the new bulbs don’t flicker, they still cause prob­lems for some peo­ple. Eye strain from the low-intensity light is cited, but some of us do per­ceive flickering.

The U.K. plans to ban the sale of con­ven­tional (incan­des­cent) bulbs within the next four years. Patients’ asso­ci­a­tions are ask­ing that the older bulbs remain avail­able for those who have issues with the newer ones.

This arti­cle didn’t hap­pen to men­tion another prob­lem with the dis­posal of the bulbs: they con­tain mer­cury. You can’t just toss them in the trash, and if one breaks you have an envi­ron­men­tal haz­ard. That cost is sel­dom men­tioned when peo­ple talk about how much can be saved by switch­ing to those bulbs. When I looked for legal ways to dis­pose of the bulbs here in Atlanta1, all of the results involved pay­ing $1 or more per bulb. How many peo­ple are going to do that? Not many, which means that the bulbs will go into land­fills, releas­ing the mercury.

In look­ing for a cita­tion regard­ing the dis­posal prob­lems, I came across another arti­cle that states that the flu­o­res­cent bulbs also cause skin heal­ing prob­lems for those who are pho­to­sen­si­tive due to lupus, eczema, or other conditions.

I think we’ll keep buy­ing the full-spectrum incan­des­cent bulbs for now.

1 I used Earth911, an excel­lent site for any­one in the U.S.

January 9, 2008  Tags: CF bulbs, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, gender, light bulbs, lupus, migraines, Pain, women  Posted in: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, From the news, Pain  2 Comments

New Resource: Curehunter.com

Cure­hunter is an inter­est­ing addi­tion to our online tool­box. It’s a visual med­ical dic­tio­nary. Here’s part of what it gives me when I look up fibromyalgia:

November 24, 2007  Tags: curehunter, dictionary, Fibromyalgia, reference, visual  Posted in: Fibromyalgia, Resources  No Comments

Not Dead Yet!

I haven’t given up on this blog, either. Or even the long-missing pod­cast! I don’t know why I haven’t posted in so long, hon­estly. I’ve been in a very quiet time, but it’s time to leave the shell.

I have had more health prob­lems, and I’m on more med­ica­tions now. I’ve added a wheel­chair to the walker and cane, and need an elec­tric chair or scooter.

At the same time, I’ve con­stantly read things and thought, “I should post that to Fibrant Living.”

So I am, now. I hope some of you are still reading!

November 24, 2007  Tags: blogging, Fibromyalgia, hiatus, return  Posted in: Communication, Fibromyalgia  No Comments

Rise and SHiNe!

This is to announce the start of a new pod­cast net­work: SHiNe, the Self-Help Pod­cast Net­work. SHiNe seeks to col­lect all the pod­casts that are about self-improvement, health and well-being in one place, so that peo­ple can find them more easily.

Check out the SHiNe Net­work at http://shinetwork.com

April 29, 2007   Posted in: Communication, Technical  No Comments