warning: ancient crone blood

…I am either:

1. A mermaid who has given up her underwater breathing and tail fins and shell bra to a sea witch in exchange for legs and talking like a human.
2. A selkie whose skin has been stolen while I was out on land.
3. An X-man/person whose superpower is feeling AWESOME in cold water (think 62 degrees) but whose kryptonite is anything warm.
4. Someone with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome whose symptoms disappear in freaking cold sea water, and whose limbs also return to their proper size & color even when everyone in the sea at the same time (all two other people) eventually have their feet turn yellow. Yellow. My feet go from purplish to a color I'd call "regular." My fingers go from a shape I call "sausage" to one I'd call "bendable without screaming."

Personally, I think any of the first three would be kind of awesome (although the mermaid and selkie stories tend to end rather tragically like, always; also if I were an X-man person I would get to meet Professor Xavier and Magneto theoretically yes I know that it is not "real" just let me have my fantasy!)

I did somewhat enjoy chuckling to myself at the mere mortals who saw us in the water and thought, "Oh yes swimming sounds fun," and then mostly made it to about knee depth before running out screaming.

This is a vast improvement from yesterday, when I was basically curled up in a Ball Of Pain crying. Two swims and an epically awesome massage later and I feel vastly improved. Really wish I could steal the massage therapist back home with me (and his really cute dog); too bad they probably would not enjoy that and also the ocean is not portable either.

Today we bought Chance a cheap feather boa, because he has a Thing for feathers. At the moment he is not sure What to do with it. Partner and I are pretty sure he will probable decide in the middle of the night, and we will wake up in a room full of  feathers and no boa.

In case they are useful to some, here are some dysautonomia links. Dysautonomia is a thing I may have that causes dizziness and falling down and circulatory problems, as well as things like headaches, brain fog, peripheral neuropathy...and may be linked to things like fibromyalgia, CFS, etc.

I have another post about it that is more personal under an access lock, please PM if you would like to be granted access. I am making this post public as it seems it could be useful to the general dreamwidth community.

Note that I have not looked through all of these links in detail so I cannot vouch for their accuracy. Also note that some of them are very DOOM GLOOM EVERYTHING WILL BE TERRIBLE FOREVER while others are all EVERYTHING WILL BE WONDERFUL EVENTUALLY, so I don't know. Something in the middle probably? But don't take the doom and gloom to heart, is my advice.

Life With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome - blog by someone who also has POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) and other invisible illnesses, note the POTS tag on the sidebar

- Yahoo group with teleconferences for a host of related syndromes, including Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, and Chronic Lyme as well as Orthostatic Intolerance and POTS

National Dysautonomia Research Foundation - Info about how the autonomic nervous system works for the layperson; also has a list of specialists

NIH Dysautonomia Page - doom and gloom but has links to potential research trials and other sources

Disautonomia Information Net - Patient-run information site and forum

Dysautonomia Youth Network of America - more sunshine and roses than the others; does have good info even if you are no longer a "youth"