Bits & Pieces
An invisible illness, explained the only way that fits as a forecast, a bank, an HR department you can't quit, and more.
Short, funny pieces on what fibromyalgia is actually like. Read one, or read all twenty-five.
The twenty-five pieces
My Body's Terms of Service
The agreement your body makes you accept just by waking up. There is no decline button.
No. 2If Fibromyalgia Were Weather
Your local forecast, from someone who never needs a window to know what's coming.
No. 3The Fibromyalgia Translation Dictionary
What "I'm fine" and "maybe next week" actually mean, with the subtitles turned on.
No. 4What My Pain Would Wear to a Dinner Party
Fatigue, Brain Fog, Stiffness, and Pain arrive uninvited and behave exactly as you'd expect.
No. 5How to Design a Day When Your Battery Lies to You
Building a day around a gauge you already know is lying, the way you'd weight a picnic against the wind.
No. 6Fibromyalgia as a Soundtrack
It is not quiet in here. The full track listing of an average day, from low static to rain on the glass.
No. 7The Emotional Math of Canceling Plans
The hidden ledger of hope, capacity, and guilt you run before every text that says you can't come.
No. 8The Aesthetics of Rest
Rest staged on purpose, with the good light and the heavy blanket, instead of the collapse you fall into.
No. 9My Symptoms Have a Group Chat
Four symptoms, one body, and a thread that starts at 4 a.m. and never lets you leave.
No. 10A Field Guide to Spotting My Good Days in the Wild
Habitat, markings, and how to approach a rare and skittish creature without scaring it off.
No. 11If Fibromyalgia Were a House
A house with its own ideas: the door that sticks, the lying thermostat, the rooms that lock by noon.
No. 12The Great Grocery Store Expedition
An expedition log. Base camp is the cart, the summit is aisle seven, the descent is the walk to the car.
No. 13Things My Couch and I Have Discussed
A relationship that has outlasted some friendships, and the one witness to every kind of day.
No. 14The HR Department Inside My Body
Annual reviews for a staff you can't fire. Energy misses deadlines; Pain has perfect attendance.
No. 15My Pain Reviews Local Restaurants
Rated on the chair, the walk from the car, and the noise. The soup is maybe the fourth thing.
No. 16If My Nervous System Ran a Customer Service Line
On hold with your own body. The music is static, and there is no manager.
No. 17The Committee That Decides How I Feel Today
They meet overnight, keep no minutes, hear no appeals, and you learn the verdict by standing up.
No. 18Assembly Instructions for Getting Out of Bed
Congratulations on your purchase of one morning. Some energy required. Energy not included.
No. 19The Nutrition Label on a Bad Day
Serving size: one day, non-refundable. Ninety percent fog, trace amounts of hope.
No. 20If Fibromyalgia Were Weather: The Extended Forecast
The longer outlook, with regional systems: the Fog Bank, the Heat Dome, and the Inland Tide.
No. 21My Body's Maintenance Manual, Written by Someone Who Never Met the Machine
Care instructions for a machine the author has clearly never operated. Yes, it suggests yoga.
No. 22If My Energy Were a Bank
A bank with no balance display, overdrafts you can't see coming, and a reserve you can never reach.
No. 23The Tide Tables for My Week
A printed schedule for a body that runs on tides: high windows, low days, a sneaker-wave warning.
No. 24If Fibromyalgia Were a Coworker
The coworker on every project, who shows up late, books your one good hour, and can't be fired.
No. 25My Body as a Tiny Coastal Town
Population one. The power fails for no reason, the one road floods, and everything closes early.
Not medical advice. Just one person's reflections on living with fibromyalgia, told a little sideways, by Rosalind Lovelace.