29.9

Spoon Theory was coined by a woman named Christine Miserandino on her blog. She wrote an entry where she describes to a friend what living with lupus was like, using a unique metaphor where table spoons represent energy loss. You should really just read her entry because I can't do it justice.

Since this entry was written, it traveled quickly across the chronic illness communities, and has been adopted by many other diseases to help explain themselves to healthy people. Even though it was written specifically with lupus in mind, many of the neurological/autoimmune illnesses share so many symptoms, it has become extremely useful to a wide variety of people suffering from numerous ailments, including Chronic Fatigue. It has become something of a doctrine to the chronically ill who have trouble being understood by the rest of society, and I wanted to pay tribute to the huge influence it has had with this self portrait.

Side note: the very, very sweet Veronica Ricci gave me the vintage dress I'm wearing in this photo. Isn't it pretty? I love it :)

This is the last month of my campaign to raise funds for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research! There is a desperate need for more answers about the disease. From now until August 31s, 50% of all profits from print sales and my online self-discovery-through-photography course Introspective will be donated to the CFIDS; an organization actively doing research into CFS. You can also donate directly to the CFIDS, of course. Please help spread the word about this; the more people this reaches, the better!