What's next, the gas chambers?

I know some people will think this is extreme but to disabled people like myself the dread that the government will eventually force us into a modern version of the Nazi gas chambers is a very real thing. They are looking to legalise euthanasia in this country at the self same time as the government are cutting benefits, not to the people who claim fraudulently as they would have you believe, but actually to the genuinely disabled people who employers won't employ because employing them is not economic because of the time they need off sick and for appointments and because of the different equipment and support they need.

The government will have you believe that working will be the making of us and will miraculously cure our illnesses but the truth is that those of us who can work can only work for an hour or so a day and only in positions that are not stood up and not carrying anything, what employer will put up with that when they have a hundred applying for the position who can work a full shift and carry anything? And many more just can't work at all due to mental health problems or physical problems that mean they can't get out of the house without help. And yet the government are declaring them fit to work, how are they supposed to find jobs? With the push to legalise euthanasia, many will feel that this is the only option for them so they don't enforce a burden on their families to pay for them and their needs that are an increased drain on the family finances. Especially when the government are going to overturn a decision by the Lords to not let them limit ESA (Employment and Support Allowance) to only 1 year if the spouse earns more than £7,500 per annum. £7,500 per annum is a minute amount and is never going to be enough to support the average 2 adults, 2 kids family, especially if one is disabled and needs special equipment, special food or care during the day when a spouse is at work.

I know that many of you that read this will not be affected by this and so will disregard what I am saying, but please, please read and realise that there is no guarantee that it will not affect you in the future, I did not ask for this illness that has floored me, I have not made it up, it is real, believe me I could not make up an illness that leaves me in such pain night and day in every part of my body, and believe me you just cannot imagine what it is like being in pain in every part of your body all the time, day and night, it has to be experienced to be believed! If I could have even a day off that would be great, but I can't.

I wrote this on my facebook page last night and it upset some people,  I'm sorry if I have upset people with my views but I wouldn't have posted it if I didn't truly and totally believe it.

With all the conservatives are doing and saying I do honestly believe that they believe that the country would be a better place without disabled people. It's a very unpalatable truth but if you look at their policies they are all aimed at marginalizing and isolating disabled people and the wording they are using both in policy and in the press is forcing blame on disabled people for the financial defecits of the country. For many, especially those with mental illness, this is just a step too far and the burden of blame will cause devastating effects, especially if euthanasia is legalised. Even for me it would make me think twice whether it would be better for my partner and parents if I was no longer around, certainly financially it would be, but emotionally would be a different matter, but still I would have to consider it carefully if I was to become that much of a burden!

If I am getting benefits at least I am contributing, but with the DLA/PIP proposals I may not be eligible anymore and so I will contribute nothing and I will be made to feel totally worthless by the government, I will have no self-esteem, we will lose our house, all because of me. Who would not choose oblivion rather than that huge burden of blame? But is that not giving in to what they want?

I really feel that this needed saying and 'able-bodied' people need to be made aware of the brainwashing that is going on, especially through the press, to make them believe that all the country's problems are down to disabled people claiming benefits and that anyone claiming benefits is a fraudster, a cheat and a scrounger. If I can get even one person to see through the smokescreen the government is putting out then I have achieved something.

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: So How Am I?

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: So How Am I?: Well I can confirm categorically that Arbeit does not macht you frei. Quite the opposite in fact. Far from "freeing" me, work has put me i...

#spartacustories

I know some of this was covered in my post yesterday but today 'Diary of a benefit scrounger' and 'Benefit scrounging scum' (@suey2y and @bendygirl) are asking everyone for their #spartacusstories of how DLA helps them to show the public and the politicians and the press that we are not scroungers, just disabled people trying to live a decent life with some quality of life in a world that makes having a disability an expensive thing to live with.

So this is my spartacus story:

My DLA helps toward the cost of food as IBS makes me wheat and dairy intolerant and as I am not coeliac I can't get my bread on prescription like they do.

My DLA helps pay towards heating bills as I have to stay warm or the pain from the Fibromyalgia becomes unbearable.

My DLA helps towards prescription costs as I am on 5 or 6 scripts a month.

My DLA helps pay for massages not available through the NHS that help to free my spasming muscles.

My DLA has been used to get things around the house to make my life more easy and more comfortable (a heated throw, special pillows...) and to take some of the burden off my other half so he doesn't get left doing all the work.

My DLA will also be used to purchase a wheelchair or disability scooter in the future so that I can get about more easily and with less pain.

I am not a scrounger, I still work the few hours I can manage, #myDLA is not used for luxuries and holidays, it is used for everyday things that other, more fortunate people, take for granted. #spartacusstories #ombh #wrb #spartacusreport

The Lords vote and the fight for DLA

Well I haven’t managed to blog for a couple of days and it has been an exciting and also frustrating couple of days! I posted Sue Marsh’s post from her blog on Monday to encourage everyone to campaign for the #spartacusreport to try and change the government’s ideas for welfare reform.

Wednesday night we won a brilliant victory in the House of Lords where the Lords voted for 3 amendments to the welfare reform bill, they are:

• To retain automatic eligibility for ESA for young disabled people who are unable to work;

Won; Contents: 260, Not Contents: 216

• To impose a two year time limit for ESA claimants, overriding the government's proposal that claimants be reassessed after 12 months;

Won; 234 Not Contents in favour of the amendment, 186 Contents against

• To exempt cancer patients from the proposed ESA limit;

Won; Contents: 222, Not Contents: 166

 

Unfortunately in an unprecedented move, after recess when many of the Lords had gone home believing the business to be over with for the day, Lord Freud then attempted to overturn these amendments by tabling more amendments that basically undid the amendments that had been voted in. He managed to overturn the decision on ESA for young disabled people but was then stopped from changing the other 2 clauses by Labour and Crossbench Peers who realised what he was trying to do and basically shamed him in to stopping. But unfortunately the damage has been done to that one amendment unless the Lords decide to table a further amendment to the amendment of the amendment in order to reinstate what they voted for!

 

On Tuesday the Lords meet again and the main point for debate at this time will be the change from DLA to PIP (Personal Independent Payments). At the moment DLA has fraud rates of around 0.5%, this is a minute amount, but the government wants to reduce its overall spend on DLA by 20%, with a fraud rate of 0.5%, this means that the only way to reduce the government spend is by cutting the benefit to those who genuinely need it. The way they are proposing to do this is by cutting out what is currently the low rate of DLA altogether. This will badly affect a lot of Fibromites as many are on the low rate either for care or for mobility or both.

 

They are also proposing to make all claimants, existing and new, undergo a medical similar to the one used for ESA. As we all know, the ESA medicals are fraught with faults and huge amounts of people are being found ‘fit for work’ when they aren’t and are having to appeal and go to a tribunal. In a system that was working well, we might expect appeals to concern marginal cases where points awarded were not quite sufficient to meet the criteria. However, of the appeals heard by February 2011, 39% were overturned in favour of the claimant. Of these, 60% had originally been awarded no points at all! To date 31 people who have been found ‘fit to work’ have died in the time they have been waiting for a date for appeal or tribunal. If we have to undergo a similar medical to get or to continue to get DLA then it is fair to assume there will be similar faults with it and many people will be found to not be eligible for DLA that were eligible before and will find themselves with no money while they appeal the decision and possibly have to go to tribunal.

 

People on DLA use that money to offset the higher cost of living that faces someone with a disability. For myself I use it to buy equipment that makes my life easier and less painful, such as a heated throw that I can have on the bed or on the sofa and greatly reduces my pain. I have to have a gluten and dairy free diet due to intolerances I experience due to the IBS I have. A small loaf of gluten free bread costs around £2.50 in comparison to a normal sized ordinary loaf being around £1, that is a huge mark-up. Lactofree or soya milk costs around 3 times as much as ordinary milk. Those with coeliac disease get their bread on prescription to counteract their costs, but as my coeliac test came back negative I do not get offered this. My costs are exactly the same as theirs but as I am classed to only have an ‘intolerance’ I have to pay full price, DLA helps pay for this. We have also used my DLA to pay for things around the house to make life easier for me and my other half so that he is not left doing all the work. It will also be used in the future to buy me a wheelchair or mobility scooter so that I can get out and about a bit easier if my Fibro gets much worse. Unfortunately you can only get them through the NHS if you need them indoors as well as outdoors. I try to not use too much support indoors in an effort to keep my muscles as strong as possible so I will have to pay for one with my own money. At the moment I use crutches outdoors but that causes extra pain in my arms, wrists and shoulders so I don’t go very far. We also have higher fuel bills as I have to keep warm or the pain increases to unmanageable levels. I have prescription costs as I get through about 5 or 6 prescriptions a month, I have a prescription card which does cut the costs somewhat, but it is still another cost that the able-bodied don’t have to consider very often. So I do not squander my DLA on luxuries as the press would have people believe most benefits claimants do in their ‘benefit scrounger’ stories, this money just helps me live as ‘normal’ a life as possible without facing poverty to do it.

 

This week has been a hectic week with a doctor’s appointment on Monday and as much campaigning as I could manage from my bed on my laptop to highlight the #spartacusreport and its importance, an x-ray on Tuesday (I never realised possibly inhaling a tramadol capsule by accident while trying to take it and choking instead would cause such a problem!) and a belated Christmas meal with our brass band in the evening, Counselling on Wednesday and preparing packs for our new Fibro support group, working a few hours on Thursday and the first meeting of the support group in the evening. As could probably be expected on Friday my body declared enough was enough and laid me low with a migraine that meant I didn’t get out of bed all day and just slept as much as I could! Others involved in the Spartacus report have also suffered terribly for the effort they have put in writing and compiling the report with at least 2 hospitalised on Tuesday and Sue (aka @suey2y, diary of a benefit scrounger) and Kaliya (aka @bendygirl, benefit scrounging scum) both very sick, though struggling on to post blogs and appear on TV trying to put their point across to politicians. It has had a huge toll on them but they are doing this for us, for the disabled of Britain, so remember:

“Alone we whisper, together we SHOUT”

 

THERE ARE THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO CHANGE THE FUTURE RIGHT NOW:

1. Sign Pat’s petition and the 'Drop the Health Bill' petition
Pat’s petition asks for the same thing that the Spartacus Report wants – a pause and a proper consultation before further ‘welfare reform’ takes place. A huge surge in signatures before next week’s debate is the simplest way to expose the monstrous lie that disabled people support these reforms. http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670 

We know some people fear it might be risky to give a name and address on a government website, as you have to in order to sign this epetition. But more than 14,000 people have already taken that ‘risk’. And if ever there was a day for taking a chance to save your benefits, surely this is it.

You can add your name to the petition and nail the government lie.

2. Email a crossbench peer
The crossbench peers are the ones who have inflicted such damage on the welfare reform bill. You may want to tell them that if they voted to protect ESA claimants you are very grateful. But add that, whatever they voted before, you would be grateful if they would vote to delay the PIP legislation, because your views have not been properly listened to.

Ask them to read the Spartacus Report if they haven’t already. They can download a copy from this link  – though they’ve already been posted a hard copy.

If you responded to the original DLA consultation in December 2010 tell them that too.

And if you have read about PIP and can explain concrete ways in which you personally would be disadvantaged, please explain that too.

There’s a list of crossbench peers here with links to their email addresses.

Given that a large number of Lib Dem peers chose to abstain rather than support the coalition, and five actually rebelled, you might want to email a few of them too.

3. Get others to join the fight
Use email, twitter, facebook, your telephone and maybe even speak to people face-to-face and encourage them to make their views known before Tuesday’s debate in the lords on getting rid of DLA.

It isn’t a waste of time. As Wednesday night’s votes showed, no matter how hard the government and the media try to silence and vilify disabled people, dedicated campaigning can make an astonishing difference.

I support the Spartacus Report

From Sue Marsh, http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com

 

"I Support the Spartacus Report

So today, after months of work and planning we launch our Report

PRESS RELEASE

REPORT - RESPONSIBLE REFORM

We did everything possible to engage with politicians, lobbying MPs and Peers, writing articles, attending conferences, but at every turn we were brushed aside. 

Despite serious concerns from campaigners, charities and disabled people themselves, the Government's the recent Impact Assessment (October 2011) into the proposed reform of Disability Living Allowance is almost identical to the original. Nothing has changed, almost none of our concerns have been addressed and as the House of Lords return to vote on the final stages of the welfare reform bill, we felt that it was vital we presented our own evidence. 

This is the Spartacus Report. We all own it, we all created it. It is yours, use it in any way you wish. Please join in the campaign online today if you aren't already signed up:

Tweeting using the hashtag #spartacusreport "I support the #spartacus report"

Change Facebook status to "I support the Spartacus Report"

Email your MP with the links to the report and the press release using this short covering letter :

“This report into Disability Allowance Reform has been written, researched and funded by disabled people. As one of your constituents, I am very concerned by its findings and the misrepresentation of disabled people that it exposes.

Please will you read the report and support sick and disabled people in calling for a pause to Personal Independence Payments in light of this new research.

I look forward to your response,”

Finally, please keep checking the blog all day as we will be updating regularly with very exciting updates ;)

Our report shows that :

-The Government broke its own code of consultation over the DLA reform

-The Government has entirely misrepresented the views submitted as part of the consultation, giving a partial and biased view.

-The Government claim that DLA must be reformed as claims has risen 30% in 8 years - we find that these statistics are entirely misleading and give a "distorted view"

-There is overwhelming opposition to the new benefit, Personal Independence Payments

-Some elements of PIP appear to already be going ahead, despite a rejection of the plans and before legislation has passed.

-The Government are repeatedly warned that proposals for PIP may break International and UK equality and Human Rights legislation

This is our chance to be heard. This is our chance to put evidence in the public domain from our own perspective. Today, a courier will take 31 boxes or reports, all hand stuffed into envelopes and addressed and deliver them to every peer and every MP and all of the people who responded to the consultation. 

We did it. I had no idea if we could when we started, but we did it. 

From today, Government may of course continue to ignore us. But they can never say they didn't know what they were doing. "

Please everyone support this report and let's fight to get ourselves heard by politicians and public and press, these reforms affect us!

My take on the causes of Fibromyalgia

Someone on one of the fibro facebook groups I am on asked the other day whether people thought Fibro was a way of the body telling us to slow down or end up ‘burning out’. Putting together all the things I have read about Fibromyalgia since being diagnosed in March and looking at my own experience, the short answer would be “in my opinion, YES”. The long answer is this:

Most fibromites I know through Facebook and forums and groups were once high achievers often juggling high pressured jobs and family responsibilities. Myself I was always a high achiever in school and went on to put my all into my work at every job I have been in (I have only had 3). I work hard and conscientiously, often doing extra hours to get things finished. I am an AutoCAD Technician for an engineering firm. For those who don’t know AutoCAD it is a program to draw on the computer accurately in millimetres. I am one of the most highly skilled CAD technicians in our office, and possibly in the company. Where other technicians generally had one or two projects on the go I consistently had four or five, I worked twice the speed of most in order to get this volume of work out and to the client on time. I hate to let colleagues or clients down so agreed to most work that came my way, thus making myself overworked. This in turn caused me high stress, which again I think is true of many fibromites. I have no children so at least I didn’t have that added stress. Pressure got worse and worse at work because if I failed to complete work on time or juggle enough to keep everyone happy I would berate myself, I am my own harshest critic. Once you start to fail, people also berate you as they are so used to relying on you and for you to always say yes that they get annoyed when you start to say no!

When you are stressed or scared your body goes into ‘fight or flight’ mode and adrenalin courses through your body to enable you to fight the foe or get away quickly. Cortisol (another hormone) also is released into the body to enable you to sustain your response to the stressful situation. If you are constantly stressed your body initially uses the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism and constantly fills your body with adrenalin and cortisol in order to deal with the stress. This also has the added factor that with so much adrenalin coursing through your body on a constant basis there is no way you are going to be able to sleep properly. When we got our first cat I became a ‘mother’, even while asleep one ear was always open and I knew where the cat was and what he was up to, if he was out I couldn’t sleep until the cat-flap went and he settled on the bed. I am sure this is the way most mothers react when they have their first baby in the house, otherwise they wouldn’t wake up when they cry to be fed! I also over-analysed everything, going over work problems or other problems in my head during the night, going through what I would do the next day and having conversations in my head, trying to imagine what the other person would say and cover every possible answer or argument they might make. With all this going on in my head constantly it is no wonder the adrenalin was racing and no wonder I was struggling to sleep, I just could not switch my brain off! Constantly being aware and alert while asleep prevents you getting to the fourth stage of sleep which is the restorative stage of sleep.

Eventually the body can’t keep up with producing that amount of adrenalin/cortisol constantly and the adrenal gland breaks down and a person goes into Adrenal Fatigue or Adrenal Exhaustion. The original article I read about adrenal fatigue in fibromyalgia is here: http://www.fibroandfatigue.com/adrenal-fatigue-a-critical-condition-in-fibromyalgia-and-chronic-fatigue.html but it is by no means a definite thing and there are many conflicting articles on the internet from various doctors and specialists, but to me it fits with my circumstances and makes me think it could be correct. Unfortunately it is not tested for by the NHS so I have no way of telling if my assumptions are correct.

Being in ‘fight or flight’ mode all the time also causes the nerves to always be on the alert and that, I think, is where then the over-reaction to pain starts with the Fibromyalgia. Nerves are used to being constantly instructed by the brain that they need to be on guard and ready to react. This makes them hyperactive and they start reacting to things they shouldn’t react to like small knocks and muscles over-straining, add this to the fact that you are not getting to the fourth stage of sleep which is the stage where healing of wounds and restoring of energy occurs, then you have muscles that hurt with only minor over-exertions and that can’t heal themselves because the usual healing sleep is not there either. Also, with this comes more nerve reactions of jumping muscles, twitches and all-over itching where the nerve endings are getting completely confused with their signals.

The nerve sensors also react to lights, sounds and smells in an over-active way, making things that you would once not even notice grate, and again cause that ‘fight or flight’ response so that you just have to get away from the irritant, or fight it! Family often think we have a short temper or are being grumpy but it is not that, we just cannot stand the noise/light/smell and forcing us to experience it can cause extreme reaction in us, making us physically sick or giving us a migraine. We are just obeying our body’s instructions to get rid of the irritant or get as far from it as possible.

So where does this leave me at the present time? My brain has basically shut down, it has said “enough is enough”. I can forget what I am saying in the midst of a sentence, I can walk into a room and forget why I am there, some days I can stare at my computer and not know how to proceed with the work I have been doing for eleven years! Many just say “you’re getting old that’s all”, but for someone who used to be erudite with words as I used to be and who used to be at the top of their game work-wise, I find it upsetting and frustrating and many other words that I just can’t find at the moment! My body too has shut down and I cannot walk more than a few yards without the support of crutches, I can’t stand for more than a few minutes without pain, I sleep 18 hours out of 24. I am very sure that this is my body’s way of telling me I need to listen to it, sleep when it tells me to, get rid of as much stress as possible and let it recover, regroup and regain its lost strength. In fact I am actually starting to feel some benefits of my slower pace of life in the last week or so, no doubt to be completely ruined by Christmas, but I have felt as though I have just a fraction more energy at last after years of feeling wiped out by the time I have showered in the morning. I’m not saying I am cured or that I can go back to my old life, but just that things seem to have made a very fractional move in the right direction and that is giving me hope for the long-term future.

Ditch the non-believers

I haven't written my Blog for many months now and I will update you soon on all that has happened in my journey with Fibromyalgia but for now I want to blog about something that has been on my mind the last couple of days.

What I would like to say is: Ditch the non-believers!
This condition is hard enough without having to justify your pain and lack of energy to people.
This post is prompted by a comment made to one of my facebook friends who also has Fibro. The comment was something in the gist of "stop playing the disability card", and I found that quite offensive. Granted, I don't know the commenter, or her relationship with my friend, and yes the discussion was not originally about fibro or disability, but I thought how damaging that comment could be to someone who is struggling to come to terms with the disability fibro thrusts upon us, especially if you had trusted that person to do their best to understand and stick by you through the bad times.

When you are first diagnosed family, partners and close friends do need time to get used to your diagnosis as much as you do. Remember, they too have to grieve for the 'you' they have lost and the loss of the life they were expecting to have with you and come to terms with the new 'you' and the limitations that will put on your relationship.

But there will always be some that refuse to acknowledge your illness and persist in believing that you are 'putting it on' or 'making a mountain out of a molehill'. These people are toxic to your well-being and if you are to come to terms with your diagnosis yourself then these people must be ditched if they refuse to listen to explanation or reason as they will make you doubt yourself. Part of the route to acceptance, and therefore progress, is the recognition that your life has to change in order to exist in a life with Fibromyalgia. You have to get rid of as much stress as possible in order to get the most out of your new life. Anger at your limitations is counter-productive and in the end only causes your symptoms to worsen.

So if at all possible ditch those that criticize you and question your disability and draw close those who make the effort to understand, empathise and make adjustments in your friendship/relationship to accommodate the new 'you' and the limitations this illness can force on you.

Tuesday 28th June 2011

Haven't been on for a while as the fatigue has been very severe and the last thing I want to do after a whole day on the computer is get on the computer once I get home!

Feeling awful at the moment, on my second cold in 3 weeks and aching all over, feel like I have been hit by a bus! Lymph nodes in my armpit are swollen, headache, blocked sinuses, knees are painful and unsteady, earache, cough, chest aches and the odd sharp pain every so often in my chest too and just totally exhausted.

Have been really enjoying the For Fibromyalgia Friends page on Facebook lately, they are a great bunch of ladies and a good support but I posted on there Sunday evening when I was feeling poorly and upset having found that just walking the length of the garden made me breathless and unsteady, due I think to my cold and the opressively hot weather, and not a single person replied! It's made me feel very down so I don't think I will post on there for a while incase people don't reply again as that will put me in an even worse depression than I am already! I think this illness heightens your emotions as well as everything else as I seem to get upset very often and also anger very easily too.

The house is a total state and the garden is now like a jungle but I have no energy to tackle either. I'm feeling totally useless.

Wednesday 27th April - Back at work

Well, after a nice long weekend I am back at work again. Have been really enjoying not having to get up so early and being able to take my days leisurely and not worry if my brain is foggy or my muscles ache, beacuse I don't have anything I have to do or anywhere in particular I have to go. So it was a big shock to the system to have to get up at 6:30am and be out of the door at 7am to get to the station in time for the train! Also I think I did too much at the weekend with all the tidying of the house we did and the walks we went on as the muscles in the backs of my legs feel really tight and are making it painful to walk and as always my ankle is very painful.

Have not been feeling particularly well most of the weekend. The IBS has been playing up badly so have felt nauseous most days which isn't nice. Have plodded on though as OH wanted to get out and do stuff and we had arranged to have visitors on Monday so needed to get the place tidy for that. Hope I feel better and can enjoy the coming long weekend.

Sunday 24th April - Easter Sunday and depressed

Yesterday I woke early and had things going through my head about having Fibro so I wrote them down and eventually formed this poem:

Fibromyalgia – Prison sentence of pain

I didn’t ask for this, why did it choose me?

But now I have it, why can’t people see

The pain I feel is etched upon my face?

But of it they seem to see no trace.

To me it is obvious, all-encompassing and severe,

To them; “Oh yes, I get aches too dear”.

After a list of their minor aches and pains,

How do I then find the energy to explain?

The exhaustion that makes you tired before you’re even out of bed,

The way the Fibro messes with your head.

The pain that is there, daily, from top to toe,

No let up, no way to make it go.

The way some days I can barely walk,

And other days I can’t find the words to talk.

The way I have to plan everything I do,

Because if you do too much Fibro bites back at you.

Too much exertion means the next day in bed,

Or dragging around limbs made of lead.

The way just going upstairs makes my legs fill with pain,

Then wobble and shake as I go down them again.

The depression I feel that this is now me forever,

The prison sentence of pain that will never get better.

The fear of how much worse it could get,

A wheelchair? Housebound? I don’t know yet.

If I am lucky I won’t get much worse,

But even so it is still a curse,

To know that I can’t do the simplest of things,

Like ironing or gardening or emptying the bins,

Without forward planning and lots of breaks,

Which quadruples the time it used to take,

To try to avoid being struck by pain,

That will force me to be bed-bound again.

To have to refuse things I’d like to do,

Because I can’t manage it, is upsetting too.

How I wish I could go back to how I used to be,

Little did I know then what was waiting for me.

If I had known I would have done more,

Had children, got married, had a career I adore.

Now, for me, all those dreams lie in tatters,

And because of that my heart just feels battered.

But the ability and energy just isn’t there,

My body’s in pain just washing my hair.

Just getting your way through each day is a chore,

So there is no way for the things I hoped for.

So if people curse me and say I’m a quitter,

Make sure you tell them that you know me better,

Because you’ve read this poem and have the insight,

As to how having Fibro can change someone’s life.

And if they don’t believe you, tell them again,

That no-one would want this prison sentence of pain.

I have posted it on Facebook in the hope that my friends will read it and maybe understand more about what I am going through but so far out of 280 friends only 3 have commented so I guess only 3 have taken the time to read it which makes me very depressed.