Looking for friends with chronic illness and pain

missuswells

my fitness goals are different from most of the people on this site... among many other things I have autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, interstitial cystitis, pelvic floor dysfunction, irritable bowel syndrome etc. etc. basically I hit the jackpot healthwise ha ha.

i've always been naturally extremely skinny. I remember being excited as a teenager when I finally made it over 100 pounds. in my early 20s I was around 120 pounds and I think that was the best weight for me. Now though I'm up to 160 pounds. I do care more about my health than my looks but growing up as "the skinny girl" it definitely takes a hit to my self-esteem when I see myself in the mirror looking so bloated and puffy-faced. :blushing:

okay so for the exercise...I'm not able to do cardio at least not for more than five minutes and even then it has to be light (I did half a Jillian Michaels DVD once and fainted, stupid uncooperative body) I am interested in Pilates but it strengthens my core which is bad for my pelvic floor dysfunction. swimming is difficult because of my interstitial cystitis because the chlorine can cause irritation. The reasons go on and on but in the end I need to find something that works for me. I've decided that using bodyweight and weightlifting would be the best idea. Besides from that I'm open to ideas.

Mostly what I want is friends in the same situation as me so please if you have arthritis, IBS, fibro, MS, anything!!! it doesn't matter. I would love to be friends with you and we could motivate and support each other not to mention coming up with creative ideas :flowerforyou:

Blossomforth13

I feel your pain with chronic illnesses! I don't have any of those in particular, but I do have hypotonia, or congenital chronic muscle weakness, which actually runs me the opposite way, and puts me almost completely into cardio-land. Me lifting is a bit of a pipe dream, I want to get strong enough to do it, but...hahaha, yeah right. I also got fetal alcohol effects and prenatal cocaine exposure from my biologicals, so my motor skills tend to be in the dumpster unless I'm focusing really hard (goodbye any chance of driving, ever.) and chronic pain from scoliosis and a hip that is tilted/malformed, and tends to cause one leg to be longer than the other without regular adjustment. Chiropractors are my best friends to get through life sometimes. My body is a lemon.

nibletty

I have UC & chronic fatigue & associated autoimmune joint stuff and a few other lovely health conditions that wipe me out often and make it pretty tough to get fitter. I eat the same as I always have, only with less wheat and dairy, and yet I've gone from size 8 to size 18 since getting sick, and it's no fun at all buying clothes any more. I really don't want to hit size 20, so here I am having another go at sorting myself out.

According to the tracker on here I'm in a big calorie deficit, so trying to eat more atm (to stabilise, and then hopefully cut down again) and do more, but it's hard as my insides are very picky and I'm in danger of overdoing it even with small amounts of exercise. I'm sure you're familiar with this! Anyway, so far I've managed to do something exercise-wise every day for the last three weeks - a little walk, five minutes on the exercise bike or ball, gentle stretching, calf raises & leg raises, etc - plus three days a week of upper-body weights which I'm tracking via fitocracy. They are very light weights, but I'm lifting them regularly & hopefully they'll get heavier soon. I recommend fito, it's helping me stay motivated so far.:)