The Martian Princess Chronicles
A Martian Princess living with the hidden disabilities caused by residing on planet Earth
In my previous post, I wrote about how an irrational fear had caused me to accidentally sacrifice something that eventually turned out to be incredibly pleasurable. The issue I’m dealing with now is what to do when the danger is real and the apprehension is logical. Continue reading “Remembering The True Purpose Of Fear”
My right ankle is cold. Strangely cold. Cold and painful. Continue reading Weekend (Flashdance) Coffee Share
Is it ever possible to extricate yourself from the preconceptions of any medical professionals you have to deal with? Continue reading A Medical Trojan Horse?
I’ve detailed in the posts here and here how difficult it was to get someone to take my symptoms seriously. One of the most important aspects of that journey was how convinced the doctor was that I was suffering from some kind of anxiety – to the point of talking over me when I tried to protest. At the time, I just believed that he was making a huge assumption based upon one blood test. Nearly nine months down the line inconsistencies have surfaced that suggest something else may have been at play. Continue reading “A Hidden Agenda?”
I’m not writing this for your sympathy: I have no need, or desire, to receive a plethora of ‘get well soon’ messages (not to be ungrateful – it’s just a little beside the point…) I’m writing this for the people who, like myself, cannot use the word ‘allergy’, but know all too well that certain substances are detrimental to their health. I’m also writing this for the people that goad them. The people that claim that an absence of an EpiPen is a sign that we are merely fussy eaters: that the substances we put into our bodies have zero effect on the illnesses we suffer from. The ones who believe that if a reaction isn’t immediate and deadly that the ‘sensitivity’ is fake. This horror show is for you.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE ARE CONTAINED IN THIS POST. Continue reading “Bread, Barley and Blood”
We’ve all met them. Those allies who, either deliberately or unconsciously, make you feel so much worse about yourself, about the way you choose to live, and how you deal with your own challenges. These are the people who, when you’re at your most vulnerable, make you feel selfish, ill-informed, and downright idiotic: and their attempts to ‘help’ you are about as beneficial as rubbing sand into your eyes. Continue reading “3 People The Chronically Sick Always Meet”
There is often a vast amount of war-related language utilised when we, generally, speak about illness – chronic or otherwise. We fight for cures, battle our symptoms and add the word ‘warrior’ as a form of a suffix to the nouns that describe that which ails us. So far, so understandable – living a life like Sisyphus is not easy. Sisyphus, however, had no choice. To refuse to push that boulder up the hill would have incurred the wrath of the Gods. You may be thinking that illness isn’t a choice either – that is correct – but how we respond and deal with said illnesses, is. We can look at that giant rock and say “no, not today”. So why is it that even in support communities that treating ourselves with the kindness we deserve often considered to be a sign of surrendering to disease? Continue reading “A Fight Against Illness, Or A Battle For Wellness?”
Interpersonal relationships can be difficult enough to navigate, at the best of times; add intimacy into the mix and it becomes rather like placing tiny bits of foil into a microwave oven – you know that the volatility will become evident, but whether the appliance will survive the onslaught is anybody’s guess. In that light, adding an illness, or serious accident to those tiny metallic flames can be like finding an unexploded bomb in your basement: everyone was getting along fine in ignorance of its presence, but now its visible and the existential threat is very real. You can tiptoe around it, you can diffuse it, you can even try to ignore it – but the one thing you cannot, and should not do is agitate it. Continue reading “Don’t Agitate The Bomb!”
We’re heading towards Endometriosis Awareness Week, and my original plan for this post was a ‘listicle’ outlining some of the prevailing myths around this debilitating illness. The first ‘myth’ I was planning to bust was to be what I perceived as confusion surrounding the diagnostic tools that are currently in use. I was constantly hearing from other sufferers that the only definitive way to diagnosed this illness was via laprascopic surgery. Nonetheless, my diagnosis was first floated after an abdominal ultrasound (the type used to view a foetus) and every last one of my adhesions was clearly visible on my MRI. In fact, the MRI showed more than the surgeons had been able to see during my various procedures.
I began to wonder if this was due to some kind of cultural disparity between the United Kingdom and the United Sates. It does take an age to get diagnosed in both countries but British women fair a little better, waiting, on average, eight years for the condition to be spotted in comparison to the twelve years that American women face. I believed that maybe the UK was simply more likely to use imaging tools, initially; moving on to surgery if the symptoms persisted despite the scans coming back clear. While researching the reason for what I believed was a state of wildly differing diagnostic methods, I stumbled upon a medical paper (The Endometriosis Syndromes: a clinical classification in the presence of etiological confusion and therapeutic anarchy), written in 2003, by Professor Ray Garry. Reading this paper I came to understand why those different approaches exist. Continue reading “Is This The Reason Why Endometriosis Treatments Are So Ineffective?”
I wanted to make a brief statement about the term ‘flare-up’. It’s so much more than an increase in pain or symptoms; regardless of how manifold that increase is. It’s more akin to getting caught in the worst hurricane to ever hit the Earth, and trying, with all your might, to hold on to at least one thing that seems as though it will stay rooted to the ground for the duration. Continue reading “Holding Pattern…”
The Martian Princess Chronicles 