30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know. Questions about my issues........

1. The illness I live with is: Fibromyalgia
2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: 2006
3. But I had symptoms since: I was a child
4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: changing jobs so I can continue to work
5. Most people assume: I'm lazy or I'm a Hypochondriac.  which I'm neither but I'm sure it seems like that sometimes.
6. The hardest part about mornings are: getting out of bed to get my muscles to start loosing up and working.
7. My favorite medical TV show is: dont watch too much TV but I guess when I was it would have been ER
8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: a pen!~ I'm a pen freak! love pens!!
9. The hardest part about nights are: the pain, the RLS, not able to sleep and thinking too much!
10. Each day I take 7-8 pills & vitamins. (No comments, please)if not more!
11. Regarding alternative treatments I: am not sure if I understand it or if it will work.
12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose: visible because then everyone would know that I'm not a liar or lazy or a hypochondriac.
13. Regarding working and career: what's to say... I work because I have to and I'm hoping I can continue to work for a long time.
14. People would be surprised to know: I hate my life right now this pain is almost too much to bear sometimes and I am sure no one wants to hear about it anymore so I'm trying to just deal with it and move on because ~who cares? right?~
15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:knowing that people I care about is dealing with it too, only in a different way and they dont deserve this!
16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was:handle the pain without medication even if it was just for a day or two.
17. The commercials about my illness:state the facts but dont really capture all of what a person goes through.
18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is:not much, I've been feeling like this for so long I'm not sure I know what it would feel like without pain.
19. It was really hard to have to give up:doing any activity for long periods of time - I cant drive, walk, hike, sit, sleep for more than a few minutes to a couple of hours at a time.
20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: I'm reading more
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would:go hiking in the woods with my hubby
22. My illness has taught me: that I need more patients
23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: everyone has pain can't you just deal with it and move on?
24. But I love it when people: try to understand
25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is:Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
Josh Billings
26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them:expect changes and try to stay positive even though it will be hard
27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is:the only one you can count on is yourself - if your lucky you have good friends that will try to understand
28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: listen to me vent without judgement
29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: I care and I want others to know they are not alone
30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: cared for and loved