2016 Put On Purple

Tomorrow is Put On Purple day for Lupus Awareness.  Please show your support, rock your purple even if it's a purple butterfly pinned to your shirt.  Show your love for those dealing with this invisible disease.


Message me your pictures:

Facebook:

F-A-I-D-Fighting-Against-Invisible-Diseases

Twitter:
@feliciaqhamata

Lupus Awareness

This Lupus Awareness Month, take action in the fight to solve the cruel mystery of lupus. You can join the Lupus Foundation of America in supporting the estimated 1.5 million Americans living with the disease with three easy steps:

1. Educate yourself with these facts about lupus.
     *  Lupus is a complex disease that is hard to define. It strikes without warning, affects each person differently, and has no known causes or cure.
      *  Lupus symptoms can be severe and highly unpredictable and can damage any organ or tissue, from the skin or joints to the heart or kidneys.
       * Despite the widespread prevalence of lupus, research on the disease has remained underfunded, relative to its scope and devastation.
       * Only one drug has ever been developed specifically to treat lupus and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

2. On May 20th, Put on Purple™ raise awareness and show your support for people affected by lupus. Learn more by visiting lupus.org/putonpurple and submit your photos at putonpurple.tumblr.com.

3. Take the KNOW LUPUS challenge at lupus.org/know and challenge your friends so that together we can create a future with NO LUPUS.

2015 - 30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know

30 Things About My Invisible Illness You May Not Know
* The following has changed since 2015, stay tuned for updated "30 Things"

1. The illness I live with is: Anemia, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia (that I know of)

2. I was diagnosed with it in the year: Anemia started 2005; Fatigue and Fibro August 2012

3. But I had symptoms since: 2010

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is: Sleep schedule, knowing when to stop instead of pushing past my limits

5. Most people assume: It's normal every day aches or old age pains :) or I simply overslept or being lazy

6. The hardest part about mornings are: Getting out of bed.  Sometimes my back hurts so bad I can't do anything but lay there. 

7. My favorite medical TV show is: Right now Grey's Anatomy.  It used to be House when it was on the air.  

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is: My scanner/adobe type writer; I have issues writing for to long so what I tend to do is scan things I need to write on and use my adobe typewriter to fill in the forms.

9. The hardest part about nights are: Getting comfortable enough to fall asleep or keeping my RLS at bay

10. Each day I take _ 7_ pills & vitamins. (No comments, please. That is including taking 1 pill twice out the day)

11. Regarding alternative treatments I: Am still looking.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose:Actually I probably would prefer an invisible one.  Even with all the trouble of trying to convince someone that you do have a problem.  I would prefer that over them seeing my pain everyday and either feeling sorry for me or it hurting them too seeing my problems.  At least this way I can hide it when I need to (which also causes it's own problems :) ). 

13. Regarding working and career: Hmm, that has been my biggest struggle.  I would like to be further along than I am, but I wonder sometimes if I take on the extra work will I be able to keep up.  Or will my ailment remain at the stage it's at or worsen making it harder to keep up.

14. People would be surprised to know: Anything is wrong with me.  I rarely just let go and lay out not moving.  I try to push through, which on days I fall asleep at the drop of a dime is kinda scary.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:Unpredictability.  I love to plan ahead, but I can't always count on my plans.  

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was: Running.  With the pain that I feel and the extreme pain I feel after exercising I didn't think I would be strong enough to even pretend to run, but I do.  And  I love it.  And will keep it up until my body tells me otherwise.

17. The commercials about my illness: Are vague.  I'm glad they are there because then when I say Fibromyalgia or chronic pain people are like "Oh yeah" I heard about that.  But they don't really do it justice.

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is: Getting up and just going.  Now getting up is an issue and some days I can't go because I can't wake up.

19. It was really hard to have to give up: Hanging out after the kids are in bed.  That's usually my me time or me and hubby time, but for the most part I usually need too (don't always do what I need) go to bed when they do to function in the mornings.

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is: I haven't fully executed it, but I want to garden.  Actively as mentioned above I've taken up running.

21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: Take the kids somewhere like disney were we would walk around all day, ride rides, eat whatever and do it again the next day.  As it stands if I did that I wouldn't be able to walk either the next day or a few hours into that day.

22. My illness has taught me: Priorities

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is: Just take some tylenol or just get up and move around you'll feel better.

24. But I love it when people: Want to know more and don't blame everything on my ailment

25. My favorite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is: Of course, God doesn't give you anything you can't handle.

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: Don't think about what you can't do, remember all you can and do what you can until you can't.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is: How little people know about others.  When I tell people

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was: My hubs took the kids out the whole day so I could be alone to sleep, surf the internet or just veg out.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because: There are a lot of those who suffer in silence and I was one of them.  I'm not trying to put a sign on my back and say look at me, but look at the illnesses support those with them.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel: Happy that maybe you will take interest or show us chronically ill some support.

My Facebook Page: F-A-I-D-Fighting-Against-Invisible-Diseases

MS Donations: http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Donate
My Personal Lupus Donation page: http://lupus.donorpages.com/Raise4Lupus/TPQ/

MS Awareness Week Now

It's officially MS Awareness week, today through the 13th. 

What are you doing to raise awareness?

* I will be wearing orange
* Increasing my posts
* Sharing my journey
* And spreading the word

MS Awareness Week

Multiple Sclerosis awareness week is coming up, what are you doing to spread the word?

Candy....Candy.....Candy

In an effort to help raise funds for my March for Babies walk on Sunday, April 24th I will be selling mini candies and packets for .10 cents.   I will also be selling larger candies for .25c to support both the Walk To End Lupus on May 1st and the Walk MS in November.  

2016 Gulf Coast Walks To End Lupus

Ready... Set... Go!

Rally your teams for the 2016 Walk to END Lupus Now! Registration is open! Join a team and get started today! 

Galveston April 9th         Beaumont April 23rd          Houston May 1st

Corpus Christi May 22nd                         *Rio Grande Valley and more launching soon!

And don't forget about our limited-time Early Bird discount...

REGISTER TODAY! 

Insider Tip: Follow us on Facebook for news, fundraising tools, and tips on how to make the most out of your walk day for you and your team!

I will be walking with Linked by Lupus. 

A “New Year” as an MS Activist: MS Connection

A “New Year” as an MS Activist: MS Connection: When I was a kid, I questioned everything! You name it, I wanted to know about it. I didn't see anything wrong with wanting to know more and more and more and even more than that. Listening to...

Upcoming events

As of today two of my 4 fundraising walks have been announced.

Join me at the March for Babies April 24th, 2016 @ 8:30am

And the Walk to End Lupus May 1st, 2016 @ 8:30am

Stay Tuned for the Walk for MS (Est. November ) and the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Walk (Est. October).

For off season donations or to support FAID click here. All denominations are welcome.

Welcome to FAID

Welcome to F.A.I.D - Fighting Against Invisible Diseases

I started FAID originally as a FaceBook page to have a central place to bring awareness to several invisible diseases that meant something to me.  At first it was just two, but grew as I realized there were misconceptions for others that were near and dear to me.  I have since also started a Pinterest Board, voice my views on Twitter and lastly started this blog.  I was using my personal blog for some things, but I felt as I'm campaigning multiple issues I need one platform the is united with the name as the others are.

I wanted to take the time to welcome you in my first post in hopes that you feel that this isn't just another ploy to exploit money or another money hungry corporation, but an individual looking to raise awareness for multiple issues that mean something to me.  And if I also raise funds for organizations I know have worked to support and create change for these illnesses than that's just icing on the cake.

Welcome