After a million years of using candles, there's no trick I know to stop them tunnelling too much. So one day I wondered if I could just accept tunnelling & use the leftover wax for new candles. My first one looked a total mess, but I'm chuffed with this one. 100% unused & recycled wax. Recently bought a woodwick candle for £20. Recycled candle cost a £1. (10 wood wicks for £10.)
My friend lives in Liege in Belgium. Sent me a pic of a rainbow she saw today. She's not on Reddit though!
Bebe's crazy appearances are one of my favourite things about Frasier. I'd never skip an ep with her in. People aren't wild about the Dr Phil ep, but it's one of her best appearances.
I have her antics to thank for pointing out how funny the world of talent agents is. So a few years back, when I came about a French TV series all about talent agents, I gave it a chance. The show is a comedy called Call My Agent, & if you liked Bebe's completely amoral scheming, then Call My Agent is for you. 4 series, & a new film out on Saturday, which is why I'm mentioning it. Enjoy!
I present to the group a bit of light-hearted silliness that I hope will be appreciated. Do you believe that Hugh Laurie's portrayal of a chronic pain sufferer was surprising realistic, since Hugh is not disabled in any way?
Then you can buy this unofficial Lego Dr House to commemorate this! He's not cheap, his whiteboard accessory is extra & postage is probably too much for non-UK people, even though the company does ship internationally. But I've had several convos on here about House in the past, & I just thought people might want to see this.
Taps at the Montana was on Channel 4 this morning & I definitely think it's a worthy entry. Trying to do CPR on a parrot. Asking Daphne to smell its breath. And then as if that's not enough chaos, someone dies playing "Murder" & they have to dispose of the body. Hilarious! I love the farce-style episodes. 😄
Quite some time ago a woman called Ann Smith (she is highlighted in red & me in blue) asked for 100 women to share their photos for an artwork she was planning to do. Shy as hell & dismissed af, I literally jumped at the chance. This was my chance to be seen by someone, anyone who actually _believed_ I had chronic pain, & didn't immediately dismiss me as a "hysterical woman." Also Ann was from the Chicago area, so there was absolutely 0 chance anyone from my life would ever see it.
Because I'm from thousands of miles away in the UK. Why are women universally dismissed in all countries? Why does no-one ever listen to us? She could've done this picture with a million women! As Ann herself says - "Anxiety, Stress And Psychosomatic. Stop, you're hurting us." ✋️
Recently participated in a fairly powerful art project about the massive gender inequality in healthcare. Just wondered if anyone would like to see it really, as I am not the original artist. Does the community think it would be helpful?
I've seen many small smoke bushes over the years, but I've never seen one as big as this. She is a _monster_ & I love her. Had to do some photo editing though, as against the super-bright sky she just looked like a giant red/black blob. 😄
I've read for years/a decade that you should exercise with fibro. I finally found a physio who understands dyspraxia & the undiagnosed hypermobility I have. She's so nice. However, after doing 30 mins of extremely low-impact exercises (essentially just stretching) with her on Wednesday, I'm in hell.
I googled & found it was DOMS. I'm not a gym bunny. I'm a couch potato because my fibro is too agonising to do anything with. So I didn't know DOMS was common for "up to 3-5 days after a workout." Further googling led to me reading "but for fibromyalgia, 7 days." And wildly unrealistic things like "just switch to walking, swimming & yoga instead."
I physically cannot cope with this level of pain on top of all my other extensive pain. And the worst thing is, I have an entirely unsympathetic family. So I just wanted to vent & get some empathy from the community, really.
It's Father's day in the UK & here I am at 46, gathering evidence of all my dad's terrible behaviour for a social services appointment on Tuesday. After a bare minimum of 10 years of abuse. At most, it's been since I was 18. My mam has absolutely, positively _refused_ to let me tell anyone.
I didn't particularly want to. I wasn't going to. But then I got fibromyalgia in 2015. Probably from having to live with them my whole life.
That was when the emotional abuse really stepped up. Because I've been soundly dismissed by doctors, who mostly just think I'm a "hysterical woman" my parents didn't believe or understand there was anything wrong. No-one did. Recently my health issues have got worse, & after a metric ton of therapy, I told a doctor about the abuse.
Now I'm terrified that the social worker will dismiss me too. All-in-all, a very fun way to spend Father's day.
If you have a condition that severely limits your energy, it's hideously ironic that to get anyone to listen to you at all you have to have the energy of a thousand suns. I have worsening chronic pain & lack of energy. I'm trying to get UK social services to help & I feel like I'm being stonewalled. I also rang an advocacy charity last month for help with being stonewalled with social services.
I haven't heard back from them. Just some vague "oh you haven't been assigned an advocate yet" a fortnight ago. I was thinking this morning "should I ring either of them back today?" But I Just. Don't. Have. The. Energy.
I've only used cheap-ass wired earphones until this point, & my TV has crappy sound. I'd really love to connect some Bluetooth headphones to it.
Budget & location -
UK. Solidly mid-range. I wouldn't want a cheap pair, but I'm not looking to pay over £300. And that's an absolute ceiling.
Source -
My TV is super-basic. I have a Bluetooth transmitter/receiver & I'd want it to connect to that.
Preferred tonal balance -
I'm a complete & utter novice. I don't know what this means.
How they will be used -
Connecting to my TV via my Bluetooth transmitter receiver. Connecting to my phone to play music.
Past Gear experience -
None whatsoever. My main problem here is sizing. I have a very small head for an adult, and very small ears. I worry that 90% of headphones will be too big, & that if I got kiddie ones they'd have no features other than "protect children's ears."
Features I would like -
Noise cancelling. Noise cancelling is the main reason I want to buy them. I do not live in a quiet area & people have suggested noise cancelling headphones to me.
I hope this isn't too long. I kept getting a pop-up that said I had to include this amount of detail!
Literally stumbled across this on BBC 2 (UK) just now. It's definitely worth a watch if possible, as Prof Hannah explored the idea of actually including disabled people in society. (What a revolutionary concept, eh?)
She went to a cafe in Tokyo where they remotely employ housebound individuals as "robot avatars." She talked remotely at the cafe to a woman named Kiyo. Kiyo articulated the struggles of being housebound so beautifully, that I ended up fully weeping at her ideas of wanting to eliminate loneliness & her "humans interacting as souls" vision of the future. For I am housebound & by god I'm lonely. Anyway, UK folk please watch it!
I've had dyspraxia all my life, but had 0 support about it. Recently I paid for a private physio as I've had crippling neck pain for 10 years, along with fibromyalgia. Private physio recommended some exercises to try, one being where you hold out your arms & squeeze your shoulder blades together.
I'm dismayed & upset that I have 0 proprioception at all & therefore have no idea how to move my shoulder blades & not my overactive traps muscles. I've seen suggestions about using a mirror, but it's my back. I can't see my shoulder blades in a mirror. Read some things about how you have to work so much harder to develop proprioception as a "skill that takes time to develop."
But I'm 46 & just want some quick tips on how to give my body a clue where my shoulder blades are? I am seeing the physio again next week. I want to have said "yes I tried the exercise"
Sorry this ended up being really long!
I've lived in the same house for over 30 years, & every year this splendidly goth bush/tree in my neighbour's totally untended garden gets bigger & bigger. It's massive now & I have still have no idea what it is. I'd really love to know! Never posted here before so I hope it's OK!
(This has been crossposted to r/fibromyalgia, I hope that's OK. I have fibro but find this group invaluable)
I'm so lonely cos I can't leave the house & I'm stuck with my highly unsupportive & emotionally abusive parents. I'm so scared because an endoscopy left me not sleeping for 10 days. This activated my fibro in a way I've never experienced before, & now it's in full, out-of-control runaway train mode. I know it's being fired up by the tremendous anxiety of being in so much pain, as well as super-fun mystery pelvic agony, which I'm booked an MRI for.
I saw a doctor on Monday & he genuinely seemed to give a s***. He was not dismissive like all doctors I've seen. However all he did was up my Duloxetine a tiny bit. Genuinely, how am I supposed to carry on like this?
I'm so lonely cos I can't leave the house & I'm stuck with my highly unsupportive & emotionally abusive parents. I'm so scared because an endoscopy left me not sleeping for 10 days. This activated my fibro in a way I've never experienced before, & now it's in full, out-of-control runaway train mode. I know it's being fired up by the tremendous anxiety of being in so much pain, as well as super-fun mystery pelvic agony, which I'm booked an MRI for.
I saw a doctor on Monday & he genuinely seemed to give a s***. He was not dismissive like all doctors I've seen. However all he did was up my Duloxetine a tiny bit. Genuinely, how am I supposed to carry on like this?
I have a doctors appointment today, & 30-odd years of being throughly dismissed, minimised & ignored behind me. I'm absolutely riddled with medical trauma - as you know it's hard not to be when you have chronic pain & are forced to interact with bad medical care on a constant basis.
I'm in so much pain at the moment. Had fibro for 10 years, probably have some form of undiagnosed, life-long hypermobility that no-one has ever picked up on. This is because I fall into the "hysteria trap." And today I need help more than I ever have, after pulling a neck muscle. But I'm in so much pain, I'm terrified I'll be incoherent, dismissed & ignored. Again! Any tips to help with this?
I've developed post-nasal drip from gerd & it's driving me quite literally insane. Has anyone found wedge pillows useful, or will it only aggravate my fibro even further?Also I'm very short, & I'm worried it would be too big. If bought one out of sheer desperation, would it only make things worse?
I can't take things being worse. I'm already at the very edge of sanity here. Hope someone (ideally as short as me!) sees this & replies.
Sorry for the crosspost but I'm just in desperate need of support.
Had an endoscopy on Tuesday & can't believe how much it's ****** up my digestive system & throat. Feels like I've got blades of glass shredding it to bits. The stress of that has reeked absolute havoc on my stomach, which in turn has provided such severe acid reflux I can't sleep a wink.
And you guessed it, that's cranked up my overall pain levels to stratospheric, as aren't I just so lucky to have fibromyalgia as well. It's good the endoscopy didn't show anything desperately sinister, but all my traumatised brain is screaming is "wtf did I bother."
Because now I'm solidly locked in a nerve shredding, pain causing cycle, & all I want to know is if this has happened to anyone else.