Health Conditions

[AniaR]

Im having a particularly awful time lately with my health I just feel the need to vent a bit. I thought I should be productive and start a thread about it- I figure somewhere on this forum some of us have overlapping health conditions and we may be able to share words of wisdom.

Currently I've been diagnosed:
ADHD
Extreme food allergies
Minor scoliosis
chronic pain (part of a neuro disorder)
environmental illness
anxiety/ PTSD

Im in the process (yes process, cuz in Canada it can take over a year to see a specialist etc)
Interstitial Cystitus
Pancreatitis

WHAT DO YOU HAVE. lol

[Princess Kae-Leah]

I hear ya, girl, I have quite a few disabilities and health problems as well:
*Asperger's Syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder
*Severe scoliosis, so I had to have spinal fusion surgery when I was only ten years old, which means I had metal rods put in my back to keep my spine straight. As a result, much of my back and core muscles are almost paralyzed.
*Very weak knees which dislocate easily, so I have to be very careful when moving not to bend my knees too quickly or more than I need to.
*This other condition which has a name I can never remember how to spell and pronounce, but it makes one leg slightly longer than the other and one foot turn inward.
*Several allergies and sensitivities to several things: dust, scents, some chemicals, alcohol, caffeine, you name it.
*My body in general is very weak, stiff, clumsy, and awkward so I have trouble walking long distances and I'm not supposed to run, jump, dance, turn cartwheels, spin/twirl, swim, etc.
*Social anxiety issues and depression
*Insomnia
*Constipation
*Minor weight issues, as due to the medication I'm on, I'll probably always weight a few pounds more than my BMI Ideal, no matter how healthy I try to eat or how much I exercise I do, although the latter is very difficult with my health issues
*Pale, sensitive skin that burns easily, no matter how much sunscreen I put on.
*Acne
*Asexuality, which I know isn't really a disability or health problem, but it IS nonetheless something that effects my life.

[Mermaid Jewel]

I was just diagnosed with minor scoliosis. It's a scary thing for a dancer. I wonder if it's been having something to do with the back aches and tightness and dance problems I've been having...do you have any more specific info, Raina? My doctor said it wouldn't affect me much but I'm still curious.

I also am most likely ADD (not diagnosed, but most GT kids are ADD)

Tendonitis (ankle)
Runner's knee/patellofemoral pain syndrome
Currently I have a on-and-off hurt hip
Dizziness and headaches from lack of something. We're on the dehydration and replacing electrolytes stage in testing xD

I'm not really ill, just really hurt from dance.

[Odette]

i got that too(i keep forgetting)
my doctor said it can explain some back aches but they give you some exercises to do so it doesnt hurt much.not too bad.what kind of dance do you do?

[Mermaid Jewel]

Mostly ballet and some jazz and modern. I'm really intense though (20hours a week, give or take)

[Nerissa]

WOW. 20 hours a week! That's impressive! I wanted to be a ballerina. But I would never settle with it. I have so many interests. I could never start dancing ballet now anyway.

- I am schizophrenic. I keep seeing ghosts and other characters.
- I am a little paranoid sometimes. And when combining it with schizophrenia, it can get pretty ugly... But people don't see me as bonkers, I do work well in life.
- I have social angst, but I keep fighting that, so it's not a big problem for me.
- And I have some problems concerning food as well. I have nearly had Anorexia for... about six years. Going on and off. But I've never been anorexic, so that's fine. I'm just very careful sometimes about what I eat. It's a craze, really.
- My psychologist thought I had Asperger's syndrome, because I can get awkward in social situations and I have crazes, but I never heard anything more about it so I guess I don't have it after all. I get crazes sometimes. I get hooked on something. Like one month, I was hooked on the Harry Potter universe. And the other month I wanted to get really skinny. The next weeks I got hooked on Burlesque stuff, so I gained weight again to get curves. And now, I have a new craze. Love. I could call it an obsession, like kids get, but I don't see myself obsessed with this guy, I'm just... infatuated. I don't like the word "obsessed" either, it makes me look like a stalker, lol

So, that's me :)

Wow, I love this! We can really get to know eachother this way! Haha

[AniaR]

do you have any more specific info, Raina?

mine showed up in an xray looking for something else and my doc thought I all ready knew about it! She was like "so your scoliosis isnt the cause" and I was like "my scolio-what?!"

she's never ever spoken about it but I went into physio therapy for something else and massage therapy. The massage therapy was great and so was physio. They focus on posture, how you walk and hold your body etc because you strengthen muscles to make up for the curve. They got me to take dance classes actually. haha. if your lower back bothers you massage therapy will do wonders but it can hurt when they address those muscles at first.


- I am schizophrenic. I keep seeing ghosts and other characters.
I would have never suspected Ner! You do very well! It must be such a challenge- I have no idea what it's like but I have really vivid nightmares so I can only guess it's a lot like walking around having random dreams and nightmares and being stressed out trying to figure out what's real and what's not. With my ADHD I often go through little obsessive spurts too

[Nerissa]

Thanks! Well, it was tough, but now I'm getting used to it. It's like "Oh, and by the way, dad, there is a man behind you waving at me." I see random things, sometimes it's nice things, like my grandfather and other people who smile at me, and sometimes I can see rather creepy stuff. I won't go into detail, but it is a bit scary. And sometimes it's more random. I was watching tv and I heard a woman talking about glue, for some reason. Haha! It's like meeting an alcoholic on the bus. Just play along with them and laugh about it afterwards, it's not scary when it isn't outside in the middle of the night.

Obsessive spurts! That seems like the right word for it! :)

[New York Mermaid]

I have

*Lung issues- meaning harder to catch my breath, and tires easily (due to half a lung missing)
*Clinical Depression
*Severe allergies to Corn, Squid, Clams and anything Spicy (i have to walk with 2 Epi-Pens everywhere)
*Emotional issues which cause Seizures, stomach pains etc.
*Easily Stressed (but I’m working on that thank you yoga)
*Anxiety
*Hypoglycemia
*Anemic (to the point that I bruise easily)
*Severe Migraines- I’m taking muscle relaxers for it, it still doesn’t help much)
*Partially blind in my right eye- I see colors and movement but I can’t focus at all, just blur.
*A Nervous condition (this is due to my father constantly screaming and my parents fighting everyday all the time for 10 years straight. If I’m being screamed at, I literally begin to shake and go into "shut down" mode.)

Though I have all of this I still push myself to accomplish something in my life. Ive been a very sick little girl from birth, always in and out of the hospital, but as an adult, I tell myself to always be positive and look at the good in everything. I love to be in the ocean and/or the pool because i can be alone with my thoughts and focus on something other than my health issues.

[AniaR]

like my grandfather and other people who smile at me, and sometimes I can see rather creepy stuff. I won't go into detail, but it is a bit scary.
back in the day they'd think you were a necromancer or medium! :P


*A Nervous condition
that my dear is PTSD- the same thing happens to me because of having an abusive parent

[New York Mermaid]

that my dear is PTSD

you know, I never thought of it like that. But thanks for clearing that up

[happyguava]

Big mermaid hugs to everyone. Sometimes it's nice to know we're not alone, isn't it?

I've had severe anxiety and depression for many years now, which doesn't seem to get easier but I'm much safer now than I have been in the past.
Coeliac disease... oh joy. For one who has a love affair with cake this one was tough!!
Reasonably crappy lordosis in my spine.
A whole heap of eye crap - nystagmus, lazy eye and short-sightedness.

And I'm currently trying to get over either glandular fever or post-viral fatigue.

[kazekoh]

I have been diagnosed with Fibromylgia and I am Blllindddd as a cave fish XD; I can't get around with out glasses or contacts. I literally can't see a face unless its like less then a foot in front of me.

I have some sort of mood/mental disorder. Not sure what though. Depression, ADD and Bipolar have been bounced around. -shrug- Going to a new doctor soon woo!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

It's nice to know I'm not the only fish out there that's struggling with a shopping list of issues. :3 Not that I'm happy you have them, but at least we have people to sympathize with.

As for myself, I'm stuck with a small host of things.
-Exertional Asthma: basically my lungs and throat begin to swell and close up causing me to get short of breath, or in some cases it closes almost completely and will cause me to pass out if I don't take a rescue inhaler. Yay for any sort of physical exercise, like swimming!
-Stress-Induced Ulcers: Lovely bleeding sores in my stomach that, believe it or not, can actually affect my breathing, which is already decently shot.
-Unknown Stomach Issues: I've been in and out of doctors offices and emergency rooms, including one frantic ambulence ride at 3 in the morning, for stomach issues that I was apparently born with. They think I may possibly have a misshapen stomach, acid reflux of some sort, and extra acid production, but they're not sure. In any case, every morning when I wake up I have to battle minor to severe and some times debilitating stomach pain. I've even missed a week of school when it was extra bad.
-Occassional Migraines: Some are so bad that my vision starts to go white.
-Stress from a strong need for perfection: Thus, the ulcers I've developed.
-Constant Back Pain
-Swimmers Ear, no matter how little water I actually get in my ears.
-Insomnia
-One weak ankle from being sprained twice.
-Near-sightedness: This one, thankfully, isn't too bad. I still have to wear contacts though. At least there's the possibility of Lasiks in my future.
-And other random junk, like being allergic to cats, pine needles, and hypersensitive to mold.

I will admit, this is nice to get out there. Thank you guys for being willing to put yourselves out there like this. :)

[Mermaid Jewel]

So I was curious, I had a really bad experience with getting my ears pierced when I was 12. (it got infected, mom hit a nerve in my ear and it sent a shock wave through my body, let it close up) Now even though I know it's necessary being a dancer, I can't get it done. I'm like "yeah I'll do it" but when I really get to it, I start shaking and I can't even get to the salon. Like just typing it right now and remembering is making me shake really bad. Is this like traumatic stress or is it just a serious phobia?

[Lotus]

I didn't see this thread before I posted my own....
Most of the things that are wrong with me are my because of my heavy drug use when I was younger and my bulimia. I had a fairly traumatic experience when I was oversees at the ripe young age of 19. When I got home, my whole life kinda fell apart... I started partying with a friend of mine and found that Ecstasy made me feel all better. So I did TONS of it. For those of you who don't know, Ecstasy's main ingredient MDMA causes a massive seratonin dump in your brain, which makes you feel happy and euphoric. Then you come down and your brain chemistry is all kinds of jacked up and you feel lethargic, depressed, angry... sometimes even suicidal. Also, you grind your teeth like crazy while you're high, and in my case, I chewed the insides of my cheeks too, which left me with a mouth full of canker sores to go along with the mental stuff. I was also into meth and coke and the occasional acid trip- one night I overdosed and I twitched for six months afterwards. Yay. Anyway, all of that plus my voluntary throwing up has left me with no rear molars in my bottom jaw which makes it VERY hard to chew and very thin bone which will require several painful bone grafts if I am ever to have implanted teeth. I have acid reflux, and I have fairly serious depression/anxiety thanks to all the drugs permanently altering my brain chemistry. Like I said, though... I did most of this to myself. The acid reflux had always been there, but the rest was from yours truly.
@Jewel, what you are describing could be classified as a form of PTSD, or a phobia- I'm not really sure... what I DO know is that nerve pain is horrible and I would avoid the threat of experiencing it again too if that had happened to me. My husband was seriously injured in a tank rollover when he was in Iraq, his left arm was totally mangled.. it's left him with moderate PTSD and chronic pain plus the genius surgeons wired the nerves in his arm backwards when they "fixed" it, so if you touch his arm in this one place, he jumps about a foot because of that "shock" pain sensation. no fun.
I love you guys, btw. We are all flawed in some way, but the way we deal with it is what defines us.

[Mermaid Sirena]

@Jewel, You're not alone I don't have pierced ears either. THough mine is more because I see no reason for it and don't want to deal with the healing process and everything. You know it's really easy to convert normal earrings to clip ons, there are even special clip ons so you can wear post earrings with out a problem (by the ay never by magnetic earrings they fall off everywhere. You can find normal converters at craft stores and I think you can find the post hole ones to.

I don't have a lot of issues personally it's my boyfriend who's got a ton of health problems though (makes up for the two of us), for me:
~ Sever Dyslexia, which no longer effects reading or writing unless I come across a big word I don't know or isn't even vaugly with in the normal rules of the English language. However it is sever enough that it affects my ability to comprehend speech sometimes, I hear the sounds coming from your mouth and know I should know them but it's all gibberish. (So I claim I'm partial deaf for simplicity, which now doesn't seem all that far from the truth either.
~ Potentially hard of hearing. You know the mosquito ring tones? I can't hear any of them until it's at a pitch for like 60 something year olds.
~ Hormonal imbalance, happened during middle school which caused black outs and after current events seems to be coming back if not as severely.
~ A bad knee that occasionally gives out or freezes in place.
~ Not really a health problem but I'm a dragon back, so my spine has almost no muscle or fat between it and my skin. Often results in brushing and scrapes up and down my back matching where the vertebra are.

[Mermaid Miel]

I have Aspergers Syndrome.
It means I have poor organization/time management and get obsessions easily.

I'm willing to admit that sometimes I fail to take care of my nutrition properly (I forget to eat) and so I get sick or depressed really easily.
I would be swimming right now except I caught a minor bug from my lil cuz (thanx!) and really should not be in a public chlorinated pool.

[Mermaid Kiba]

Look at me, digging up a thread that hasn't been touched in a year!

I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which comes with lots of fatigue and joint pain, among other symptoms like my hair falling out (fortunately I have so much hair that it's hard to tell I'm missing any). I also have clinical depression and migraines.

[EnidDarkWater]

-jewel if you get your ears done again go to a tattoo shop/piercing studio where they do it with needles and avoid the gun at all costs! Its pretty much like cattle tagging and makes healing alot harder as well as the guns they use in public places arent generally single use so there is no good way to clean them and all the micro spray from other peoples bodys is still there, goes into your body causing infection. quite a bit of yuck.Just take a breath and set yourself up in the i'm going to do this mind set before you go get them done.At one point i was covered in jewelry and honestly the anxiety over it before is worse than the process :)

As for my med issues I have severe panic attacks out of no where for no reason
MPD or as they call it now DID
stomach issues i've had since i was little that my boyfriend has helped me out with
blind as a bat
tendancy to rupture my ovaries from cysts, it tried to kill me at 19
very bad back
Lots of left over physical pains from violent child hood injurys and accidents

[Dee Tal]

I have costochondritis which is an inflammation of the connective cartilage between the ribs and sternum. The pain has been dehabilitating at times and plagues me every day It has been going on for 2 1/2 years and I'm hoping it doesn't interfere with me starting to swim again soon. I think the low/zero impact and gradual resistance might be a good thing.

I've also had joint pain in my hands lately when carrying things or holding an umbrella for more than a couple minutes. Going to try supplementing with glucosamine and see if that helps.

[Ayla of Duluth]

MRSA over here. Basically a permanent staph infection that's highly resistant to most antibiotics. Occasionally causes cysts that need to be lanced. The bacteria buildup in the cyst causes fevers. MRSA is transferred through bodily fluid, i.e. kissing, sharing drinks, diddle time, etc. mostly remains dormant though and isn't that big of a deal.

[Elle]

I have
Dyshidrotic Eczema; I get it on my hands and feet. It creates wonderful little blisters all over the skin that itch like crazy, and sometimes wakes me up at night from pain.
Contact Dermatitis; can't touch latex (no latex tails), medical adhesive (like on a bandaid) or alcohol, whether drinking it or in a hand sanitizer.
Nightmares; Not really a medical condition. But I get fairly bad nightmares regularly and have injured myself (and my partner) in my sleep. I had to go to hospital once because of how badly I hurt myself.
Nyctalopia; basically once the sun starts going down, my vision starts decreasing rapidly. Once it's actually night time I can't see at all, without the help of artificial light.

[MerEmma]

I have celiac and as for allergies, certain types of rubber, plastic and styrofoam really bother me. I have a really, really bad misaligned back but my chiropractor is all about "alternative terms" so I don't really have scoliosis. :p

[Morticia Mermaid]

Severe Dyslexia
Chronic pain- Cause by lack of Meat protein, yes there is an actual condition
Clinical Depression
PTSD- due to an abusive childhood
Highly weakened lungs due to a bad bout of Pneumonia when I was less than a year old
Insomniac
Anemic
Chronic Migraines- bad enough I have to stay in the dark for a minimum of 2 days
Black outs
Poor blood circulation

After recent incidences, I felt that people should know just what exactly is wrong with me... I probably forgot something, I'll end up remembering it later

[Azurin Luna]

I'm dyslectic and I alo have discalculy (sp?) it means I have trouble with big numbers and doing simple calculations in my head.
I'm allergic to warm/hot water and soap, also humid weather, my own sweat and some spices make my skin break out until it almost bleeds if exposed to long to it and it itches like hell. Sea water is fine though and softens the skin.
I've mind blanks, as we call them, were I just stare in front of me and not reacting to anything.
I always have cold hands and feet, even on hot days and they turn purple easily.

[Capt Nemo]

Autism/Aspbergers. Hilatial hernia which causes strong reflux at times, and made me go to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. Nerve deafness thanks to a foecepts slip at birth.

I also get bronchitus easily from colds, but the more I dive, the less problems I have with it. I'm thinking it's due to higher PPO2 levels while diving keeping the bad bugs at bay in the lungs. But when I do get it, I'm coughing for a good month afterward.

[Ayla of Duluth]

I'm allergic to warm/hot water and soap
How do you shower?! :O I can't imagine not being able to handle warm water. I'd be so cold. :s

[SeaGlass Siren]

lactose intolerant, iron deficiency. and my one eye is blurry while the other is perfectly fine.

[Mermaid Wesley]

scoliosis, adhd, poor circulation to my feet and toes Im fine though :)