Chronically Lola

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The October slide has been absolutely brutal this year. And apparently, my body has decided it hasn’t had enough. 196/117. Pulse 110. I’ve been feeling absolutely terrible lately. Not just a little more tired or a little more uncomfortable. I’m talking about the kind of days where everything feels harder than it should. The pain has been relentless. The exhaustion is overwhelming. And some days, I genuinely wonder how much more my body expects me to handle. I went to the doctor, and my blood pressure medication has been increased as instructed. But here’s something I wish more people understood about living with chronic illness. It’s not always just about managing one diagnosis or one symptom. It’s managing everything at once. The pain. The fatigue. The medications. The appointments. The new symptoms. The constant monitoring. The wondering what’s happening now and whether this is something else you’re going to have to deal with. And somewhere in the middle of all that, you’re still supposed to live your life. Take care of your family. Get things done. Make plans. Show up. Be a functioning human being. All while feeling absolutely miserable. I don’t share this for sympathy. I share it because THIS is part of chronic illness that people rarely see. The behind-the-scenes reality of trying to manage a body that never seems to give you a break. And quite frankly, I’m exhausted. October, you’ve made your point. I’m ready for a little mercy. 🫶🏻 Anyone else getting absolutely demolished by the October slide this year? #OctoberSlide #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #Dysautonomia #InvisibleIllness

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Nobody prepares you for what chronic pain does to your relationship with yourself. The second-guessing. The bargaining. The expectations you quietly lower. The suffering you learn to normalize because you don't know what else to do. Some of the most painful parts of chronic illness have nothing to do with where it physically hurts. And I think we need to start talking about those parts, too. What's a conversation you've had with yourself because of chronic pain that you've never said out loud? #ChronicPain #ChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness #ChronicPainAwareness #ChronicallyLola

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I’ve been dealing with new blood pressure concerns and feeling genuinely unwell. And it’s brought something I’ve talked about for a long time painfully close to home. Every time I discuss medical gaslighting, I get comments from healthcare professionals saying, “It’s not patients like YOU we’re talking about.” But that’s exactly the problem. Who ARE we talking about? The patient who comes in repeatedly? The patient who’s frustrated? The patient whose symptoms don’t make sense? The patient whose tests come back normal? Every person who walks through those doors is seeking help for something they believe needs medical attention. And can we please talk about how chronic pain and illness change the way we PRESENT? Being on our phones doesn’t mean we aren’t suffering. Speaking calmly doesn’t mean we aren’t terrified. Not crying, screaming, or writhing in pain doesn’t mean our pain isn’t severe. Some of us have spent YEARS learning how to function through symptoms that would have once brought us to our knees. We’ve learned to mask. To adapt. To distract ourselves. To appear composed when our bodies are anything but. Our composure is not evidence of comfort. Our appearance is not a medical assessment. And our ability to function should never be mistaken for the absence of suffering. I recognize that healthcare professionals work under enormous pressure. I know emergency departments cannot diagnose or fix everything. And I know there are extraordinary people in healthcare who genuinely care. But compassion shouldn’t depend on whether you find a patient believable, likable, or easy to treat. And here’s what concerns me most. Some of us are genuinely frightened that something serious is happening inside our bodies, yet we’re debating whether seeking emergency medical attention is worth the possibility of being dismissed, judged, or humiliated. Read that again. We’re weighing our fear of what could be medically wrong against our fear of how we’ll be treated. And when that fear causes people to delay necessary medical care, the consequences can be devastating. Sometimes an opportunity to intervene is lost. I’m not encouraging anyone to avoid emergency care. Quite the opposite. I’m asking us to acknowledge why some patients are afraid to seek it. Because medical dismissal doesn’t end when the appointment does. It follows patients home. It changes how they interpret symptoms. It makes them question their own judgment. And it can affect whether they seek help the next time something frightening happens. You chose a profession where people come to you during some of their most vulnerable moments. You deserve respect and safety, too. But patients deserve dignity, compassion, and an appropriate medical evaluation, regardless of how their suffering presents. You may be changing whether someone ever feels safe asking for help again. And that should matter to every single one of us. Have your experiences with healthcare ever made you hesitate to seek medical attention when you needed it? #MedicalGaslighting #ChronicIllness #PatientAdvocacy #ChronicPain #ChronicallyLola