We Are Family...We Take Care of Our Own

What if you were told of a family member who is suffering from debilitating health and financial issues, and you had the ability help, would you? Of course you would, because here on the GOS more than any other online community, we do take care of our own.

Many of us came to know TiaRachel from her Daily Show/Colbert Report diaries, a series she faithfully produced for years. She made this community richer, and funnier, and now she needs our help.
 Here, let her tell you why:

Backdrop: I've got an assortment of health problems (fibromyalgia, chronic migraine, autism-related anxiety, depression, etc...). I was getting worker's comp (long story), but they started requiring me to look for 'appropriate' work,

Let's rewind and take a look at that paragraph again. Assortment of health problems...fibromyalgia...chronic migraine...autism-related anxiety...depression. Let's ask our own Aji to translate all of that for us:

Any one of her health conditions would be enough, potentially, to make what the world considers "regular work" impossible. I should know. I've had the fibro diagnosis for years now, although no one's been able to identify why I also have symptoms that, no matter how hard they try to shoehorn them in there, don't fit into that particular trashcan diagnosis. [No, don't argue with me about that term; FMS is an actual diagnosis, yes, but the medical community also loves using it as a trashcan so that they can avoid dealing with more difficult, less easily compartmentalized presentations.] But no matter; they've given me the fibro diagnosis, so they can focus on that (which means mostly telling me how it's all on me to fix it), and they can forget the rest. Just once, I'd like the doctors and nurses to have to live in our shoes for a week.

Chronic migraine? Oh, I have chronic migraines, all right; my current one has been hanging around more than a week now. The longest one I ever had? I don't know, because on the twenty-first day, I quit counting. But I have "chronic migraines," small "c" and small "m." They stem mostly from an old injury (and now, also from a new one). I don't have what Rachel has, which is an actual medical condition called "Chronic Migraine." As I understand it, one of the diagnostic markers is that you must lose at least half the days of each month (averaged out over time, obviously) to migraine pain. It's a nightmare.

http://www.dailykos.com/...