and I'm OLD now. I gave up complaining a very long time ago, realizing other people had their own problems, some of which I wouldn't trade for my painful chronic diseases for all Cheney's money, like the problem of actually having to be Cheney. I'd hate to go through life that nasty and clueless.

In fact, I often wonder if I'm giving doctors too little information because so many things aren't worth complaining about these days.

a hypochondriac. If you ignore things, you fear that you'll slip into a crisis!

is right on. i didn't bother to think hard about my sore wrists and tingly fingers. just mentioned it at a routine follow up. oh, carpal tunnel you say? oh, a summer of pt, soreness in places i didn't know i had places? time at the pt's office? time in bed, overcome with the pain and fatigue? oh, an emg? sure. oh, an mri?

yeah, i wonder if i shoulda just kept my mouth shut, and upped my pain meds. prolly.

I realize that this post is old but, I just had to throw in my 2 cents on Dick Cheney. That sub-human creature is a threat to all of society. He and the rest of that administration should be locked in a cage and kept somewhere in a remote location far far away from any other living human being. I'm sorry I just had to get that off my chest.

Welcome to DU!

I still talk to my husband about it, and feel sometimes like he must get tired of hearing it (he assures me he doesn't), but I don't really talk to anyone else about it. When people ask how I'm doing, I usually assume that they don't really WANT to know and are just trying to be polite, so I don't tell them.

But it always goes through my head: "How am I doing? I feel like I've been hit by a fucking truck again. I'm always tired, so not much has changed, because I'm still tired. My hair is falling out again, my skin is dry and I'm gaining weight. I allowed myself to get stressed out at work, so my Ulcerative Colitis is flaring up and my blood sugar is 190. My joints ache for some unknown reason and it hurts to walk. I would go to a doctor to find out why my joints hurt, but they won't help me. Oh, yeah, and just because Mother Nature is a cruel mistress, my hormones are all fucked up, too. Other than that, I'm feeling great!"

I usually just go with the last part of that paragraph "I'm feeling great".

especially to docs that are not my rheumie.

I find my complaining to be very helpful. Just verbalizing and dumping the pain and fear is cathartic for me and there are times that I need to do it a lot. I am lucky that I have a few people in my life who understand that process for me and let me have at it. They accept they can't fix it for me and just listen and acknowledge. I don't do it with strangers or those who don't "get it".

it's trying to explain to family members what's going on - at a certain point you have to accept that some people can't or won't understand - and move on!