spillthebeans

(I try to be serious, but I just fail.) The awkward thing about being a spoonie who is running a blog for fellow spoonies is that sometimes I fall prey to being a spoonie. Which is to say that the reason I haven't been blogging here is because a lot of things happened, including not feeling well. (Ironic.) Though I seem to be in a good patch with my fibro, my health isn't perfect (OBVIOUSLY since I run this blog). Thus, I've been having some down days where I have a headache or brain fog or overall body pain. Now, there have been a lot of days where I feel okay. The only thing is, I don't have as many spoons as I would like. And between running a website and helping babysit, I've been a bit low on spoons. Unfortunately, that means a lot of my more personal projects have fallen by the wayside. (Don't feel too bad; even my novels, which are my life-blood, have been neglected too.) I guess the point of this post is to say, I'm low on spoons right now... and I...

By Alyssa Hollingsworth I have measured out my life with coffee spoons--which is a poetic way of saying, I am a spoonie on several levels: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Raynaud's Syndrome, Hashimoto Hypothyroid, Type 1 Diabetes, Celiac, and gastroparesis. It all started when I was 17, and those last three diagnoses came in this past year (I’m 25 now). Being a spoonie is straight-up exhausting to the tune of I-don’t-even-want-to-breathe, need-to-take-a-break-while-buttering-toast, it-was-a-bad-idea-to-scrape-this-ice-off-my-car. Sometimes it can be hard to make and maintain relationships, because it takes so many spoons to get out of bed, walk the dog, and go to work or school. There just aren’t a lot of spoons left for coffee or group activities or noise in general. Throughout the years, though, relationships have boomeranged back time and again to encourage me in surprising ways. These are five gifts that have made me smiled on hard days, gotten me back on my feet, or just ...

"When you feel so tired but you can't sleep..." - Fix You by Coldplay I mean, did Chris Martin nail insomnia or what? One of the big things about having fibromyalgia (or CFS, Lupus, or anything in that family) is that insomnia is a major symptom. Sometimes we can't get to sleep for no reason. Other times we do sleep, but we wake up feeling even more exhausted. (Yes. I know. It's not fair. Also, the irony is that I was falling asleep while working on this post a couple of days ago.) For a while, my sleep schedule has been pretty good. I go to bed around 1 or 2 am and wake up at 11 am. Yes, I know that this isn't a typical sleep schedule for most people, but trust me, this is one of the best sleep schedules I have ever been on. For about a year in 2012, I was going to bed in the early morning and waking up in the evening. It was about 7 am to 5 pm. Some days I woke up at midnight. The reason for this was unknown, but my sleep schedule just couldn't regulate ...