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Medical Condition

What is Your Disability?

I have a multiple of disabilities they include:


How Does It Affect Your Daily Life?

Fibromyalgia (FMS) and How it Affects my Daily Life:

  • I feel pain and stiffness in my muscles and tendons.
  • I feel fatigued all the time, part of this is because I have trouble sleeping.
  • I have anxiety which very often leads to bouts of depression.
  • I have numbness and tingling in my arms and legs, when I am having a bad day. Good and bad days come and go.
  • I feel dizziness off and on though out my days (some days are better then others)
    Sometimes my tendons are so painful and tight, I feel like they are going to snap.
  • I am trained to work in a kitchen but during my training it resulted in my physical well-being to deteriorate. I developed "tennis elbow", sore tendons, knees and numbness in my arm and the problems seemed to be increasing. However, at the time I didn't know that all the problems, with my health, were the result of me having Fibromyalgia. So, between my Physical Therapist and I, we decided that I have to get out of the Cooking industry because it was making me worse and was "killing me".
  • Somedays I feel very irritable...that usually happens when I feel really worn out and tired of all my disabilities and the limitation and with that comes anxiety.
  • On the days that I feel dizzy and weak my sight seems to weaken. I need my eyes rechecked and probably new lenses , but I do not have the money.
  • I feel pain all over my body when I am cold. I hate being cold.
  • I can't even play my piano, which I love doing, for prolonged periods of time without feeling numbness in my hands and arms. If I continue playing dispite the numbness I feel increasing pain.
  • Too much of any type of physical task or job is very aggravating to my symptoms in Fibromyalgia.
  • As far as personal care goes: Someday, I have a difficult time doing my hair. I have to take breaks resting my arms down until the discomfort and numbness decreases.
  • I can not do any over head cleaning work e.g.. walls, cupboards, shower stalls. (My mom did all this for me in the past)
  • It very difficult to do any cleaning that requires repetitive motions e.g.. washing floor, making my bed, sweeping, vacuuming. If I had to do heavy cleaning e.g.. ovens and stoves, My mom would do it for me but now that she can no longer do everything for me I am at a loss.
  • My Fibromyalgia, on top of all my other disabilities, really depress me. I can't find work that I am able to do so I can't pay for the cost of medicine and stuff that will help me get better. I know I can become a contributing member in my community once I have retraining and a little help. I am stuck in a negative cycle of; pain and struggling - no money - no money to help better myself , or pay for retraining- having my medical condition stay bad - I can't work to make money because of my medical condition and the training I have -and so on and so on....It repeats there. I have tried a number of times at jobs and each time I physically could no longer handle it.
  • Caring anything is very difficult for me. Caring can, depending on the size and weight of the item cause; pain, numbness and swelling. Something as small as a bag of groceries can be painful to carry.


Chondromalacia and How it Affects my Daily Life:

  • Chondromalacia is extremely painful and very restricting, because of how it affects my knees. It's hard to do any type of standing , walking or sitting, with out discomfort which often leads to pain.
  • It is difficult to walk anywhere over a short distance, e.g.. over 2-3 blocks. , due to the pain and swelling that occurs.
  • It hurts to stand or sit in one position too long, over 15min. I start to feel very uncomfortable and then I feel pain and on occasion swelling and numbness occur (Sometimes the time in which it takes to feel discomfort is less)
  • I feel a lot of discomfort going up and going down stairs, and on most occasions I feel a lot of discomfort and tightness.
  • It is hard to fall asleep or stay a sleep because the discomfort, pressure and pain becomes to much and leaves me very restless.
  • My family Doctor, Dr. Houston, suggested I see an acupuncturist, except I can't afford to see one.


How Allergies Affects my Daily Life:


  • I am allergic to lots of stuff. I have known I have had allergies as long as I can remember. I am allergic to: All animals, Dust, molds, mites, trees, grasses, pollen, seafood, and a bunch more, including Penicillin, Elavil and Suffa drugs.
  • I have to always watch what I eat and I have make sure I am getting the right foods in my diet.
  • My allergies cause me to feel stuffed up, have itchy and watery eyes, itchy skin, sniffles, and headaches.
  • I often get skin rashes and exzema from my allergies that get in contact with my skin.
  • When dealing with personal care: I have to be sure to use non-allergenic products e.g.. special soaps, laundering soap, and perfumed products.
  • I have to dry my clothes in a drier and I can not hang my clothes outside due to pollens and trees.
  • In the past my Mom did all the cleaning I wasn't able to do, but since I will be moving out on my own I will need assistance with house hold work.
  • I have to wear gloves when doing dishes and cleaning surfaces, due to chemical and environmental allergies.


How Asthma Affect my Daily Life:

  • I always have to be careful that I am not in an environment that will make my asthma worse.
  • I have to make sure I have a back up system in case I have a bad asthma attack.
  • When I get a cold it's a sure thing that my asthma gets worse.
  • When my allergies are really bad my asthma tends to act up and on those occasions I have trouble breathing and due to this all activities I do including sleeping become a challenge.


How Severe Attention Deficit Disorder (SADD) Affects my Daily Life:

  • Fibromyalgia has severely affected my thinking process, e.g. How I solve simple problems, Everything seems to blow out of proportion - harder then it should be. Fibromyalgia seems to have made my Attention Deficit Disorder even more apparent.
  • At times I forget how to spell and processing the simplest of thing that I know in the back of my mind I know the answer to. The stress of my physical disabilities has extremely aggravated my ability to think clear.
  • Even filling out this form was extremely difficult for me. It was very stressful to the point where I would forget how to write a letter or word for a moment in time, when I know I know that letter or word. This form has taken me numerous hours to fill out and I had assistance and constant supervision from my mom and younger sister to help me focus on this task at hand.


How "Droopy Shoulder Syndrome" Affects my Daily Life:

  • My "Droopy Shoulder Syndrome" was what I was told I had by a Neurologist,
    Dr. Stybel. "Droopy Shoulder Syndrome" is similar to Thoracic Outlet Syndrome(TOS).
  • I have trouble doing any tasks above my head. This includes as simple a task as my hair, some times I have to brush my hair really slowly and rest my arms down every so often to get the feeling back in them.
  • Reaching anything above my head is a challenge, and it is not only above my head my hands and arms go numb brushing my teeth sometimes I need to take breaks to get the feeling back.

This is a picture chart of all the pain pressure point of people with Fibromyalgia.