There’s a tipping point. It’s the moment when you feel something odd in your body and just assume that it’s related to your chronic health condition. Before the tipping point you question what it could be. But after that point, you just assume.
Of course, sometimes it’s a medical problem that has nothing to do with a chronic illness, like an injury or the cold that’s been going around.
But sometimes it isn’t medical at all. And then don’t we feel a bit silly? It’s a good reminder, though, that not every odd bodily feeling is part of a chronic illness.
The other day I was really cold. My body doesn’t adjust to temperature changes well. I also have Raynaud’s, and my hands were very white with tinges of blue. I was starting to feel lethargic. For a while I wondered what I had done to stress my thyroid or adrenal glands. But eventually I noticed that my radiators were cold. I checked the temperature in my apartment and it had dropped. I emailed my landlord and, sure enough, there was a problem with the heat that they were working to fix. Huh. I was looking for thyroid and adrenal triggers and it was really a busted boiler. Oops!
Sometimes my vision gets blurry. I used to always worry about what could be causing it. All sorts of terrible scenarios would run through my head and I’d be very nervous. Now I know better and I immediately check the two most likely culprits: it’s always either a smudge on my glasses, or I forgot to switch my reading and distance glasses when I walked away from the computer. Oops!
What about you? Have you thought you were having some horrible symptoms only to find out that it was something completely benign and non-medical, like a smudge on my glasses? Please share in the comments! I think we could all use a little comic relief and the reminder that not all “symptoms” are medical.
Posted by chronicrants 
be asking for help so often, my friends would get burned out. I get that. I can’t expect anyone to be visiting me every other week or helping with laundry regularly. But at the same time, I know that people forget, and that’s tough.
calendar and for “PT” because that’s how I enter my physical therapy appointments. I searched my brain for any other entries that might have been entered differently (there are at least a few). I left out non-appointments, like stopping by a lab to get blood work done. Searching only in 2015, I came up with 42 appointments. 42!!!
Chronic Rants 