Please, let me use the parking permit!

If you need to use it, then make your friend use it. If she won't then tell her to drop you at the door, drive to her hearts content to find a place to park, and have her drive back to the door to pick you up. A few times of that and she might learn!

She probably would have, but found a spot she liked and I just sucked it up this time. I guess I will have to be more assertive in the future.

rude and tiresome, that we have to explain. everyone who drives me knows by now that i need to be dropped off close, if there aren't any handicap parking spots available. so sorry, girlfriend. don't suck it up - it isn't worth it. i've learned the hard way, as have you.

Thanks Jessie and Michelle. I just needed to vent a bit.

I know it is hard, I am talking with my doctor to get a diagnosis, but I think she is leary of the term fibromyalgia. Although, I took her plenty of papers stating the signs and symptoms. Now I am going to see a counselor but that onlu helps with the mental diagnosis it does nothing to help with the physical side. I am 31 years old and it just about kills me to walk around wal mart, I am afrraid before long I will have to start using one of the carts, but I feel guilty using them in case someone that needs it worse comes in and there is not one.

My husband does this. I point out a parking place thats close and he drives around and we end up far from the door.......I dont say anything either but cant he see me limping? Time to get assertive for us!

You should insist on this.
I have a mobility scooter that fits in my trunk and a parking permit - however since I have the scooter and it can get me to any door from anywhere I leave the handicapped spots for others.

Julie, the day there is a slot open might be the day that I am feeling good enough to pass up the handicapped spot. If I did, I did it for YOU. If you are in pain, please use it. It isn't just the pain, it is the fatigue that will follow. Fibromyalgia is insideous. It lets you do something one day, and then you wake up the next morning and you feel like you haven't slept a wink. For me, I can gauge it by my ears ringing, and my muscles spasming all over my body. And yet, to look at me, I look fine.

My husband is learning, slowly. Last night, after a horrendous day of neck and shoulder pain, when he came in the door after work I asked him to please rub my left shoulder blade. It hurt so much, like it was on fire, and his massage hurt too. Enough to make me cry. Maybe the crying helped though. Tonight, he brought me flowers. That was sweet. It has taken him years, but I think he gets it.

How insensitive of your friend. You should have insisted, because she obiously doesn't even have a clue why you need the permit in the first place.

Michelle and Jessica make good points. Don't suck it up. Be assertive. You must! Their false pride should not be the cause of your suffering unnecessarily!

I'm glad your husband finally gets it! It may be worth your while to seek several sessions of counseling so he can truly internallize how hard it is for you and what he cn do to help.

My DH had type I diabetes, another destructive and incurable disease that weakens and desttroys you while nobody can see anything on the outside. No, insulin is not a cure; it merely prevents immediate death. And yes, the strict diet is essential, despite what myths you may have heard out there. Even whe you are doing everything right, attacks of fatigue and weakness can fell you, as can awful painwhen neuropathy sets in. I hope my efforts to understanad and help made his life easier.

And I hope your husband will want to make the effort to learn, empathize and care for you.

Mary, the same goes for you! Please be assertive w8ith your husband. he may think it isn't all that serious just because you suck it up. I hope he joins you for counseling and learns! And changes his ways!

We have a disabled parking permit which we use sometimes and sometimes we don't. It really depends on how my son feels on that particular day.

Sometimes we get odd looks when we park in a disabled spot and notice people doing a double take to check and see if we have the permit.

My son does not look disabled, but on certain days it is very hard for him to walk longer distances.

People should realize that you might not look disabled but that doesn't mean you aren't in some way

I have osteo-arthritis , I get my husband to drop me off at the door and he glad complies . I use those carts at Walmart with out embarassment , they always have more than one , and I have never seen all of them in use.

Often I drop my sister at the door and then park in Handicapped (with her placard) for when we leave the store as usually if she rides in their cart or wheelchair, she can walk the short distance to the car.

My husband also does the same, and then if I say something he will pull out, drop me off at the door then still proceed to go ahead and park someplace, leaving me standing there to wait around for him, not evening thinking that the time I spend waiting is just as difficult. I am learning to speak up early and to remind him that we need to park in the handicapped spot as my pain is bad, or I'm not going to be able to walk the distance after shopping. It depends on who I'm out with though if they will listen.