Jane Kerrison

I want to start this post by thanking everyone for their kind comments of support! People have been sending me e-mails and messages, and I want you all to know that I really appreciate it! I’m so happy to be getting such a positive response.

I’m in a fair bit of pain today, which inspired me to try and explain one of the strange ways that pain works for fibromyalgia. The reason that I’m in so much pain today is because I’ve been working really hard for the past few weeks without taking the time I needed to rest or manage my symptoms effectively. As a result, I end up hurting more when I finally slow down.

Sometimes I am simply too busy to allow myself to be slowed down by pain or other fibro symptoms. On those days I just push through any symptoms that I am feeling, doing my best to ignore the pain as best I can. This doesn’t mean that the pain goes away, it just means that I experience it more intensely at a later date. (Think of being sad, but choosing to go out with friends. You can still be sad while enjoying other activities. The same principle applies to fibromyalgia symptoms).

One way to try and understand this is to think of pain as money. I am in some level of pain everyday. Let’s assume that money to be paid represents pain that I have to feel. So say I have to pay $10 everyday, but sometimes I can’t. If I don’t pay for 5 days, then later, I am going to have to pay $60 all at once.

It is a very imperfect metaphor that doesn’t account for a lot of the complexities involved, but I think it gives you some idea about what happens.

Luckily today I am really excited about a lot of things, and so am not too upset about being in more pain than I would like. For one thing, today is my last full day in my tiny, sketchy apartment! I’m going home for a week and then coming back to move next weekend. So that is exciting – I’m itching to get out of here.

Another exciting thing is that one of my short stories just got accepted for publication in carte-blanche. They are an online magazine, the current issue of which can be found here: http://www.carte-blanche.org/. I will be in their next issue :) This is even more exciting because it is my first story publication! I’ve had a fair amount of poetry published, but I only started sending out stories in February. So I’m pretty happy :)

Also, today I have an interview to be the vice-chair of a club on campus called InvisAbilities, that works to provide support and information for people with invisible illnesses (illness that you cannot see. ie. fibromyalgia, asthma, chronic migraines, depression, lupus etc.). I really want the position, so keep your fingers crossed for me!

Have a great day everyone :)