Author: lasenegalaise

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Window Seat? No thanks…

All my life I’ve been the tallest chick in the room. Sometimes it goes unnoticed but i’m generally not easily camouflaged

greww

Always in the back for pictures so I don’t block other people, Always asked if I played basketball. I’m tall and that is a widely known fact.Until today I did not really think of how that affected my movement through the spaces within my life . While sitting in the dining room with my roommates, we talked about how we’re all tall so we tend to kick each other under the dining room table. Now let me define tall. I’m 5’10, my other girl roommate (photo’d above in the smiley face tee) is 5’8 and her boyfriend is 6’2. The average woman in the US is roughly 5’4 while the average man in 5’9. So it’s safe to say we are some pretty tall people.

Now generally I can go about my day without noticing this obvious fact about myself. Other times I can’t. For one, I wish my seat in my car could move back further. Don’t get me wrong I love my 08 toyota corolla but sometimes Pierre just doesn’t seem like he was made for me.

pierre

Talking about window seats is what really got me thinking. Now generally when I get on a bus or in a car, I hope to get the window seat because most days I enjoy the view. With time though i’ve started to reject the window seat as my first choice. If I sit by the window and by chance someone sits beside me, i become confined to this little corner for however long this ride will last. For me that is almost torture since I have to change the position of my knee every 10 minutes or so to avoid pain in the joint. This entire problem can play a significant role in when I decide to travel. Sometimes I will catch a flight to Myrtle Beach to visit my best friend but if there are no available aisles seats for the day i’m flying, I will completely change my trip schedule in order to ensure i’m not stuck in the window seat for an hour and a half. The same problem occurs on the bus. If there are no available aisles seats, I will gladly stand for the rest of the trip.

Thinking of these small daily obstacles I encounter also makes me wonder what it must be like to be short in our society. I’ve witnessed on many occasions people unable to reach things in public places. One time my co worker used the plastic mat that they busboys stack our cups on to knock over the stack far in the back so they would be within arms reach. There are so many little things that have to be altered in our daily lives if we fall out of any of society’s norms.

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Moving Through the Space of Work & School

So, once again i’m here to talk about my fibromyalgia

*cue the violins*

mr krabs

haha but really this past week was very interesting.

Let me explain why.

So Friday before last I woke up and i just couldn’t bend my wrist. At first I thought I just slept on it at a weird angle and figured I could stretch it out and continue about my day. As the day progressed it only got worse. It became difficult to lift anything and driving to work was pretty painful. When I got to work one of my managers helped me out and wrapped it with gauze and tape then used a coffee sleeve  as a splint (innovation at its best!) to keep it from moving. Now while this did limit my movements it did not stop the pain that was radiating from my wrist.

Lifting plates and holding cups, swiping credit cards and reaching for change in my pocket was all so painful now. Unfortunately for me I had to stay and work the rest of my shift. Before I left I took 2 tylenols to help. But it only slightly numbed it to a tolerable level of pain. This problem persisted through the entire weekend. Let’s just say it was one of my harder weekends at work. But I made it through and made a doctor’s appointment for Tuesday bright and early.

Now I was originally diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2010 by a doctor who worked as an arthritis and pain specialist. As i mentioned in my last blog post, he prescribed me two medications. One prescription was illegible but the one I could read turned out to also be used as an antidepressant and i didn’t feel like risking the side effects. To this day I have not been using a doctor recommended form of treatment. Just yoga, acetaminophen and willow bark for the pain. Lately i’ve realized that maybe that’s just not enough. I need to be able to use my wrist and considering i’m going on week 2 of pain, I need a solution fast.

So I met with a doctor at University Health Services and explained to her that I needed blood work done to be absolutely 100% positive this was indeed fibromyalgia so that I could in turn take the appropriate course of treatment to manage it and keep it in check. She understood my desire for a medical plan that did not involve former antidepressants as treatment. So she drew a bunch of blood and prescribed me anti-inflammatories. Her theory is that my body is producing too many inflammatory cells and sending them to my joints. I’m supposed to take them for 2 weeks and see if they help. In the event that they do, she wants me to stop taking them and if the problem persists, I will be sent to a specialist to determine why my body is sending so many inflammatory cells throughout my body.

Now because my wrist isn’t what it should be, I went and bought myself an Ace bandage to help minimize movement and reduce pain by stabilizing my wrist.

IMG_2232

It’s interesting to see how people react to me now. Most people just stared at my brace and made comments like “you’re a woman of many talents” when i still managed to balance 3 plates. Only a few brave souls have been bold enough to ask me what happened, many exclaiming upon my explanation “aren’t you a little young for that?” To which i reply “yeah but i’m like a 75 year old woman trapped in a 22 year old body” and everyone laughs…. but i’m not even kidding. I literally feel like this old creaky body struggling to get up the stairs or even out of bed in the morning. One of my coworkers told me Sunday it breaks his heart to see me like that because usually we just joke around about my fibromyalgia when i’m really feeling it after a long day but seeing the brace on my wrist “made it all so real.”

Who knew that this simple black bandage could affect the way people perceive my ailment. I’m wearing a knee brace most days but since people can’t see it, it doesn’t exist to them. Something can’t be real if it doesn’t exist, right?