Today is kind of a special tag, it's a follow up from the post I did the other day talking about tips about feeling better when it comes to chronic pain and chronic illnesses. The chronic pain and the life of someone with a chronic illness were why I started this blog, to begin with. To prove that we're not too much different than everyone else that you can still live life and enjoy things. This chronic pain and illness tag came from YouTube from a girl called Life With Stripes. Check her out if you want to.
1. What are you diagnosed with?
I've been diagnosed with a couple things, I'm diagnosed with hemiplegic migraines, cluster headaches, optical migraines, occipital migraines, allergies, PCOS, endometriosis, and IBS. There is a strong probability if I actually got diagnosed instead of stopping gluten cold turkey that I have Celiacs as well.
2. What do you tend to do at night when you can't sleep?
I like to read or write if I can and the pains not too bad. If the pains too bad to do either. I sit and try to watch YouTube videos. I do whatever I can to do pass the time when the pain stops for awhile.
3. What's the worst side effect you've had from a medication?
The worst by far was when I was taking Topamax for my migraines. It went well for the most part, until one day I couldn't even stand up because my back hurt so bad. I went to the hospital to find out that I had kidney stones. One had to be surgically removed. According to the doctor that I had, some people have kindey stones with Topomax.
4. How has your condition affected your mental health?
I have more panic attacks and feel paranoid in public. Especially when it comes to my cluster headaches and hemiplegic migraines. I'm always worried one's going to come on and ruin my whole day. Being a parent, let alone an adult with my conditions is near impossible. I'm happy I have people who can help.
5. Describe your social life!
I really don't have a social life anymore. It's all been ruined from being in pain and the lack of energy to even want to socialize that much anymore. Unless you call talking to people on Facebook social, then I don't have one.
6. What's the hardest thing to do when you're flaring?
When it comes to my flares one of the toughest things I've encountered is being able to think and talk in general. It's why I quit my job doing the content mill stuff. When my flares are really bad I try to type, and try to think and according to people especially people who I wrote for in the past, that I can not speak English and my writing is atrocious. My flares come out of nowhere so I can be fine and cohesive for one second then the next I don't have a clue what I'm saying.
7. Do you have worries for the future?
Tons, a lot of these issues I have are progressive, or so I've been told. I don't even want to think about getting worse. Then I think about all of the other health problems my family faces like Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritus, and diabetes to name a few. I don't want to add any more illnesses to the list that I have already.
8. Favorite comfort food?
As of right now, they're the granola bars that Aldi's selling in their little teeny gluten-free section. They smell like one of those Little Debby's brownies and have little chocolate chips in the bar. Especially during the days I'm not hungry and need to take at least something to take my medications bars like these are great.
9. Tell a valuable lesson you've learned from being ill.
Just because some is diagnosed with the same thing you have, it doesn't mean that they understand the hills that you climb. Everyone is different. With that said one treatment plan will not be the same as someone else's treatment plan. It's all learning about your body.
10. Name 3 things you miss that were taken from you because you got sick.
1. My ability to think and write: I said it already but I loved to write. As soon as one of my flares hit and I got told that I couldn't write well. It stopped me completely. I'm still trying to get my head back in the game.
2. Being active: I was active before all the pain hit. I love taking long walks, I loved playing basketball, I just loved being outside. Now I can hardly walk a few feet without terrible pain or having something trigger my migraines.
3. Foods that I used to love: Since realizing gluten has been a danger to me and it's one of the things that made me ill. I had to cut out the foods I loved. I'm still slowly reinventing my diet and it's not the same as it was before.
They had an extra question about when I started having symptoms and to be honest a lot of these symptoms have been life long. I just want everyone to know. That you're not alone.
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