The Spoonie Awards (Because We All Deserve a Medal), Part Two

As I mentioned, this is going to be a really long series, because we spoonies deserve a LOT of medals. 😁

Positive thinking is fine, but not the sort of toxic positivity that invalidates our real, painful experience. There are always those people so obsessed with being positive that they lose their capacity for empathy. I can’t be “positive” about a bad situation until I’ve cried, bitched and moaned, and gone through all the stages of grief first. Also, people should try having an illness like Lyme, ME, or MCS before they judge.

How many times have you had variations of the following conversation? I’ve definitely run across this type of person, now that I am in the “you-don’t-look-sick” phase of my illness (when I was bedbound around 2010, I just got told to exercise, which was kind of difficult as I couldn’t leave the bed much).

In honor of upcoming Lyme Awareness Month, I just wanted to share an old cartoon depicting the weirdest misdiagnosis I ever got. I was diagnosed with Lyme in 2014, but between 2008 and 2014 I got a lot of things like this:

So, I didn’t go back to that doctor. 😁

And here is an old cat cartoon. Sadly, veterinarians do have a much better understanding of Lyme and coinfections. This is a very big problem for humans, although cats may think it’s just fine.

Here’s Part One of these Spoonie Awards and there will be more after Awareness Month. I keep thinking of new ones every time someone says something ignorant or mean about chronic illness, so there will be, er, many…

For Awareness Month I am making one new series and I’ll have four spoonie artist guest posts (yes, four, because I missed April). Hopefully I can do Part Two of my “Shit Lymies Don’t Say” series from last year (if my tendinitis cooperates). I have been putting CBD oil on my arm, and it’s been helpful.

Wishing everyone a low-symptoms day! 💚