Renata Carmen Writes

3/20/2020, 1:45PM - Last night, Los Angeles implemented a Safe At Home policy for the next 30 days. It was announced hours after the second death in LA County related to COVID-19. He was just 34 years old, and a testicular cancer survivor. He also had asthma. He started coughing up blood before they got him to ER, where they administered the same anti-virals they use to treat Ebola. He started to make a come-back, but fell back into it and wound up passing away. Apparently, he had been in Florida for business, and stayed a few extra days to visit Disney World before flying back home. Poor guy. This shit is fucking terrifying for me though. It just got really real and makes me grateful I started self-isolation a week before that thought was even on anyone else’s radar. But still, I find myself shaking with panic. If someone with asthma had issues, what will that mean for someone with Fibromyalgia? Granted, he also had struggled with the Big C, which puts him at a whole other level of ri...

3/18/2020, 9:57AM - In a matter of days, this country has slipped into chaos. It’s fascinating and terrifying. Everything is shut down, and those who can work from home are now doing so. Goods are flying off grocery store shelves as quickly as they can be stocked. Paranoia and fear run rampant and infect the populous more quickly than the virus itself. Our government has failed us, absolutely and totally. They have only instilled more fear and misinformation during this global upheaval. We’ve had to turn to our entertainers for trustworthy information, hope, and a sense of calm. Thanks to Joe Rogan, Trevor Noah, John Oliver, Cody Rhodes, WhatCulture, Cultaholic, and others, we’ve found sanity and community in a sea of madness and hoarding. They have been a guiding and grounding force during a turbulent time. Instead of running around in circles like the government, they’re doubling down on their efforts to keep us entertained and connected. We all wait with baited breath from our couch...

     I’m in the midst of my annual Spring Fibromyalgia Flare, and with that comes a whole host of symptoms. They’re comprised of ones you’re probably heard of, like chronic fatigue, pain, and IBS. Flares also bring more random symptoms, like horrific colds sores despite being herpes simplex free, and incredibly vivid dreams. Dreams so incredibly detailed, upon awakening you’d swear you’d been sleeping and dreaming for weeks. So vivid that I’ve felt rain soaked cobblestones under my bare feet, and the warm rays of the sun soaking into my skin under a bright blue sky. In my dreams, I’ve coordinated and executed vast cross-country moves, family reunions, and graduations. I’m not the only one to experience Flare Dreams. My father gets them, who was diagnosed with Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada in 1996, and I’ve shared anecdotal evidence with fellow chronically ill people online. Why this happens, like so much else of these illnesses, is a grand mystery. My personal theory is it ...