Chronic illness makes life hard. Multiple chronic illnesses make life even harder. That has been my experience since I first started collecting chronic illnesses like baseball cards about 9 years ago. (Does anyone collect baseball cards anymore, or did I just really date myself? But I’ve never collected baseball cards, so that’s probably a…
Medical gaslighting is, unfortunately, an all too common experience in healthcare, especially among individuals with chronic illness. It’s something I’d known about throughout the years of my own chronic illnesses. Yet somehow, it had never happened to me. That is, until a few weeks ago. What is Medical Gaslighting? The term gaslighting may sound familiar….
If you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, it should be fairly obvious that I have a painful condition called endometriosis. One of the primary symptoms of endometriosis is chronic pelvic pain. A Bit About Endometriosis Many times the pain from endometriosis is most intense around the time of a woman’s…
Trigger warning: This post contains discussions of infertility and trying to become a mother. Please steer clear if these topics make you uncomfortable. Those who have followed my blog since its beginning in July 2016 likely know a lot more about me than my more recent followers who’ve hopped onto this funky train since…
Trigger warning: this post contains discussions of depression, self harm, and suicidal ideation. Please steer clear if these subjects may act as a trigger for you. Since I rarely pay attention to much of anything anymore, it’s taken me until the middle of this week to realize that it’s Mental Health Awareness Week…in the…
Title: Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe In Women’s Pain Author: Abby Norman Genre: Memoir Published: 2018 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ I don’t often (ok, ever) write single-post reviews about books I’ve read. I read far too many books to be able to do that. I usually just write mini-reviews and…
Pituitary tumors are not uncommon. In fact, up to 1/4 of brain tumors are pituitary tumors. These tumors are almost always benign, but can cause a wide range of symptoms depending on whether they are functioning (secrete hormones) or nonfunctioning (don’t secrete hormones). Symptoms depend on which hormone is being oversecreted and/or what structure(s)…
I just don’t have the heart right now. Nothing’s changed. And maybe that’s the reason. Say something… You think you’re fine and then suddenly you’re not. Again. Biding my time. Until what?
One of the worst feelings you can experience as a chronically ill person is invalidation. It’s not necessarily that others don’t believe you (although that is also a tremendous problem and a discussion for another time), but that they either don’t see or don’t understand how much your illness(es) impact your daily life. Especially…
And now she’s dead. Back up. This post contains discussions of untimely death and suicide. Please stay safe and steer clear if these subjects may be triggering for you. One of the interesting things about having chronic illness(es) is how your friendships change. In many unfortunate cases, people who were once your friends fade…
