Pain associated with rheumatic illness, how do you manage to do anything at all?
Hello, I was wondering if anyone here has any rheumatic illness, like fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc and how you manage it, especially if you are a student. I want to rest all the time, I have no diagnosis yet but working to get there. I feel ill all the time and was wondering if any of you know what I can do to make the day better?
Currently, I don't think I have anything that falls within that, but it was suspected for a long time.
One thing I recommend is get in contact with your school's disability center ASAP if they have one. It's better to get as much set up as possible before a problem is needed and then dealing with that problem and trying to start the supports available from the beginning.
A big thing is to just do what you can to take care of yourself physically. Try to spread things out and not have a pileup of things to deal with, although with school that can be hard even with the best planning - one semester I spread out all my labs throughout the week, yet the timelines varied for reports which I had no prior information, and they were all due on the same day every week :/
Depending on your individual situation, you might want to consider carrying a smaller course load, do spring/summer courses to help make a smaller course load in the main semester easier, and even checking with online schools if there are courses recognized by your current school as these can be less physically demanding and some have more flexible timelines too.