I just wanted to chime in and say I'm a cortisone success story too! I had an impingement in my left shoulder that was severe from August of last year through the winter. It was awkward and painful to put on my coat or get dressed in the morning, I couldn't reach up or back with my left arm without severe pain.

Finally I saw a doctor and he gave me a shot of cortisone that provided instant and dramatic pain relief. I know multiple cortisone shots can cause deterioration but that one shot gave me the relief I needed to go into physical therapy and really allow my shoulder to be stretched. I did the exercises at home—still do—and returned to the doctor triumphant.

He admitted I had made great progress but still thought I should have surgery; what he often sees, he said, was progress at first, then the shoulder re-freezes. I said No thanks, that I'd be back if it froze up again but till then I was going to continue my exercises, ice, and stretching.

They are so full of shit sometimes.

I listened to this again (Thanks LWF) and appreciate the scientific pov so much. We do much needless damage to our minds, bodies, and souls by focusing on dieting and weight loss instead of focusing on being healthy if we want to be healthy. Furthermore, fat is a feminist issue, and women spend so much time together critiquing ourselves and sharing exactly what we are eating to further our weight loss all day. I was reading this great article

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/How-One-...ve-Being-Fat/1

and thinking about how much time is lost to dieting, especially for women. This is supposed to be a feminist site and yet women are congratulated for losing weight, whether that method is healthy or not. Women, for instance, go long periods eating 800 calories a day or even eat 500 calories a day while injecting themselves with a pregnancy hormone. We "thank" them, as long as they are losing weight. One reason that I started this thread is because of how I see "weight loss" being substituted for "health," which may or may not have weight loss as a side effect. I find it easy myself to fall into the "thinspiration" perspective and all the petting that one receives confessing to being "bad" with eating and all the accolades one receives losing any amount of weight. I'm really trying not to these days. As a feminist, this is something I feel strongly about. I know this is not the prevailing view on this site and that this thread is not a popular one, but I deeply appreciate those who have read and contributed. It doesn't matter to me whether people who come here are thin or fat or whether they are on a diet or not on a diet. I just like that there is any interest at all in a perspective that even considers that in our patriarchal culture we perpetuate an anti-woman, anti-fat bias by focusing so much time and energy and celebration of weight loss which we all too easily equate with "health."

This is kind of a mixed bag, but it has some good parts
 

i'm extremely grateful for nycfembbw & leftwritefemme's posts :)

nycfembbw, your post reminded me of this article...
http://healthateverysizeblog.wordpre...o-lose-weight/

it made me take a really hard look at myself and what i mean when i say i love my body.

Great article!

It makes me think of my mom who lost 130 pounds a number of years ago and spends her life fighting the pounds that creep back. She reduces her food intake and increases her exercise and still those pounds will not go away and they consume her thoughts, her days and eliminate any possible happiness she might have over being thin because of just what the article says, that thin privilege is slipping away from her......it's so sad.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...12621088_n.jpg

just saw this on facebook and though I'd post it here...I know, preaching to the choir

This is so very true.

Hi, I'm Breezy. I am BBW and have no intention of ever being thin. I'm new here so I hope jumping in like this is ok.Thank you.

jen sent me a lovely card, with a photo of a naked BBW on it. Its so tastefully done and I adore the photo, so I hung it on the wall next to my desk as art.

It is also the area I spend time with consigners. Some are notably uncomfortable and do all they can to avert their eyes. Some smile as they notice it. Others dont make any facial gestures and thankfully, none have gone screaming from the room. (do any of you remember the article on "what not to do when you meet a lesbian? That last phrase was taken from there..lol)

I plan on getting more art. Clothes and naked. I am discovering that there is a puzzle of responses I get from this photo and I want to offer my customers and visitors ample opportunity to respond to all kinds of shapes. I think we are so bombarded with thinness, we cant see fat as just another shape. We see it in judgemental terms. Bad. Ugly. Distorted. Lazy. And we of size, know these arent true.

Do you have postcards, posters, greeting cards, etc of Positive Women? (the plus sign + means positive, right?) Can you send me some more? PM me for my address if you can...

Thank you 1QuirkyKiwi! I look forward to knowing you all.

:rrose:

I want to preface this post by saying I have not read this article. If it says something horrible and obnoxious I apologize , but I don't have the time to read it and didn't want to risk forgetting about it and not giving all of you the opportunity to read it if you have the time and desire.....it's a 3 pager

The Politics of Fat: We Have to Keep Struggling to Liberate Ourselves from Self-Hatred



http://www.alternet.org/story/154850...om_self-hatred

here's the bigger problem..but again, you're the choir, right