[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Top: Nurse overhears you talking to other nurse about why you’re having a procedure. Bottom: Asks if you’re in the medical field.”]

Nope. Just been sick so long I’m picking up on the medical doctor jargon. Yay me?

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Have constant pain and symptoms. Doctor says you’re too sick, stop faking”]

I’m just waiting until I go to college so switch doctors.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Get ultrasound to find out what the problem is, find multiple problems”]

I have had chronic pain in my stomach for the last two to three years and finally started seeing doctors and then specialists this summer. After some blood tests and X-rays my doctor suggested that I go to the hospital to get an ultrasound done as that might reveal what the issue is, so I did that about a month ago. Well, the hospital just called and it turns out that there isn’t just one problem, there are multiple problems. My mom hasn’t told me all of it yet, but there is something about debris in my gall bladder and also a malformed uterus… can’t wait to find out more. -.-

[image: Chubby, angry-looking cat sitting in a wheelchair.  Text reads: “Please sign the petition to have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome recognized as a disabling condition by Social Security!! You’d be helping many people who are suffering, and who are often unable to purchase private insurance because of ‘pre-existing condition’ exclusions. http://tinyurl.com/byacwo3 Also, you’d be making this cat happy, because she really loves ‘her’ wheelchair. And, trust me. You don’t want to see her unhappy.”]

Please feel free to grab and re-post this image anywhere — I am hoping that if we can get enough people on Flickr/FB/Twitter/LJ/DW/G+ to share the petition link, we can reach our goal of 25,000 signatures by January 2, when the petition expires.

Thanks SO much for your support! Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome can have a devastating effect on your life and health. It can be, quite literally, crippling.

Some people with EDS need braces to hold their heads upright, because their neck can’t support the weight of their skull. Charlie is a Canadian man currently fighting medical bureaucracy trying to get appropriate treatment for his severe EDS.

And, yet, it’s nowhere to be found in any of the U.S. government/Social Security listings of diseases which can be considered as a disability (based on degree of impairment.) Yes, it’s a rare disease — but not as rare as many of the ones on Social Security’s listings of disabling conditions.

Many patients with EDS been told by doctors that they’d vaguely heard of EDS in medical school, but had never seen a patient with it. In part, that’s because it’s uncommon — but other people go undiagnosed for years because doctors miss the signs that could have gotten them appropriate treatment and saved their mobility.

Please sign and signal-boost, if you would be willing.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “painful and slow to use stairs: also get elevator anxiety]

So, you can chose between hobbling up stairs with people bumping you and being rude and hissing things at you

or take the elevator, and get a panic attack.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Go out and have fun with friends Can’t get back into apartment, sit on bottom step and cry.”]

Living in a second story apartment with Fibro and a knee injury can literally be the worst sometimes. My knee decided to give out on the trip back home from visiting a friend for the day and I was stuck outside for about 30 minutes crying on the bottom step to the flight of stairs up to my apartment. 

I ended up having a nice chat with my downstairs neighbor before he helped me up the steps. Sometimes people are nice in this world. 

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “can play castanets without castanets”]

People who have articular issues will understand. Since I have fibromyalgia, my joints “crack” everytime I make a single move. It hurts sometimes but to cheer me up I imagine I’m, at least a good musician :p.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “TAKE HOT SHOWER TO HELP SOOTHE CHRONIC PAIN, SPEND THE NEXT WEEK FRANTICALLY CLAWING AT A FULL BODY ECZEMA ATTACK”]

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “”You’re 25 you should be able to do a lunge!” We covered the ‘disabled’ thing, right?”]

Apparently seeking a personal trainer to learn special exorcises wasn’t actually a great plan. Somehow ‘chronic pain causes weakness’ was completely lost on him.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Nurse warns you medication may cause hallucinations. Places new objects in room while you’re sleeping without telling you.”]

Spend several hours wondering how you could tell if you’re hallucinating. Refrain from pressing call button for fear of nurse thinking you’ve lost it on lowest treatment dose. 

The next morning, when father arrives, get a really funny look for asking if he can see the chair and whiteboard markers too.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “One line for previous doctors seen and treatments attempted for condition/HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAH”]

Are we even serious right now, New Doctor Form

is this some kind of a joke
is it even 

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Need ice packs for limb pain. Make Raynaud’s act up.”]

I have to alternate between heating pads and ice packs based on season, but winter by default sucks because I’m constantly watching out for my Raynaud’s to begin with.

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Voldemort must be nearby. My scars are burning.”]

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat. Text reads: “Hooray! The pills have cured my dysmenorrhea! Pills also obliviate sex drive.”]

[Image: 6-piece blue colored background with a Siamese cat.Text reads: “Flare makes you miss school. Missing school makes you stressed. Stress makes you flare. Repeat.”]

This has probably been done already, but I couldn’t remember.