Man-ILL-Festo

Manifesto

Noun;

A public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

Man-ILL-festo

Noun;

A public declaration of aims from a diseased person, a mishmash word I just made up which has no basis in reality.

If you know anything about me, or have read almost anything I’ve written, you’ll know that I love a pun. I’ve you’ve read my book Go Your Crohn Way, you’ll have established it contains over 5015435 puns (that’s an approximation only). Some people love the puns, some hate them. They are the marmite smeared across my pages. But as the best writers are always telling us, ‘write what you’d want to read’ and I CAN’T EVER QUENCH MY PUN-THIRST.

Anyway I mention this merely as I’ve started the blog with yet another one. Sorry pun haters but I can’t always be what you want me to be.

So, what is this ‘Manillfesto’ I speak of? Well I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I can do ‘better’ in the way I approach and manage my illness. Of course there are a myriad of things out-with my control, (having chronic illness in the first place being the main one of those), but there are a few small but powerful ways I’ve found I can help myself be the best and happiest version of me.  

[Most of these are just sensible rules for life for everyone to be honest so feel free to follow my manillfesto policies regardless of your health status lads].

-          TALK: don’t bottle up how I am feeling when I need help/comfort/company.

This is a continual issue for those with chronic illness as we often find it less emotionally exhausting to simply whip out “I’m fine” or the like when asked how we are. This is no one’s fault; it’s just often so much easier than explaining our every gripe and symptom again and again. It’s honestly tiring enough experiencing it all without feeling the need to vocalise it. However ‘I’m fine’ doesn’t really resolve anything when it’s used inaccurately. All it serves to do is worry the person on the receiving end (who probably knows you’re not fine anyway) and stops us from getting the support we might badly need. So I’m trying to limit my use of an erroneous “I’m fine” for emergencies only (i.e. when in the midst of a colonoscopy)

-          PROACTIVELY SELF-CARE: make time to make myself feel better

Self-care doesn’t have to mean completing 45 Yoga DVD’s then downing 15 Kale smoothies. It can be something as simple as finding what makes you feel comfortable and relaxed and actively making the space in your day for it. For me I love a hot bubble bath, headphones on, candles lit, channelling my inner Barbara Cartland and coming out barely conscious and a shade of lobster not yet discovered by scientists. So I try to make time a few times a week to have my precious soak. It’s also a nice way to physically relax achy joints and let your brain slow down. But if you don’t have a bath you can do other things; read a good book, paint, draw, watch a box set, go dogging, whatever makes you feel happy.

-          STICK TO AN ADULT BEDTIME: develop a regular sleep routine

This is important for many reasons, and more of a challenge than you might think. Those of us with chronic illness often find what should be horizontal bliss more of an uphill struggle. We often find getting enough sleep difficult depending on our pain levels, nausea, bathroom issues or medications. For example when I was on steroids I slept for about 5minutes over the course of 5months. When I did sleep through the sweats I’d dream of murder then wake up wanting to carry it out. I didn’t follow through on any of the dream-murders you’ll be pleased to hear. So try and ensure you stick to a suitable bed time and get enough where you can, it gets easier over time once you get into a regular pattern. Keeping a track of your sleep patterns is also useful for tracking flares and symptoms and for assisting the police in their enquiries regarding local murders.

-          TAKE A LUNCH BREAK: everyday, no excuses

This sounds minor but it’s very important. Most days I work through my lunch, eat my desk (when I remember to eat) and am lucky if I’ve had 15mins of a ‘break’ in a full day. This stems from work pressure, and a little anxiety about how much time I might spend in the loo from one day to the next. Regardless of my bathroom habits I’m still LEGALLY entitled to a break so I should be taking it without question or guilt. This is a habit I, and many of us need to break. Getting away from the desk/phone/whatever you’re chained to also helps to clear the head for an hour. Unless you are chained to someone else if you are a bungee instructor for example then please ensure everyone is safely on ground level before making your Pot Noodle.

So, some basic but important points to remember there. Little changes go a long way; prioritise, look after numero uno and make the best of each day even when you might feel like death is coming up the rear faster than an experienced Gastroenterologist. 

Good Grief

I’ve written a little in the past about the similarities I find between coming to terms with a chronic illness diagnosis and the stages of grief. It’s been on my mind again recently for different reasons: the idea that just as grief rears its weepy head every so often so does the same feeling of loss that comes with having an incurable illness.

Lately I’ve been missing my beloved Grandmother quite a bit and recalling how I felt when she passed away.

 

*I didn’t at any point say this blog was going to be a rollercoaster of non-stop fun so get off now I’ve you’re not tall enough to come on this ride*

 

My sweet Granny Peggy died when I was in my early twenties. I was in the first flush of romance with my first ‘proper’ boyfriend and heading on a holiday. She died in hospital, I was there, thankfully, along with the rest of our close family. She was ‘ready to go’; she told me as much many times, and now that I’m older I understand why a little more; then I just couldn’t bear to hear the words. I didn’t want her to go and selfishly wouldn’t so much as contemplate the thought, choosing instead to do everything aside from putting my fingers in my ears shouting “LA LA LA” to avoid the conversation. She wasn’t being selfish; she was just tired.

 

My Gran was my salve. We lived in the flat downstairs from her for many years, the whole of my childhood in fact, and she was a safe bosom to run to whenever I felt overwhelmed, sad or just needed someone other than a parent to listen to my childish nonsense. What I always remember most about my Gran was her sense of humour, she laughed a lot and loved to hear us laugh. She loved to throw me back and give me ‘French kisses’ (her version of this was just pecking my neck until I giggled and wriggled away like a happy eel), we danced around her kitchen a lot and she let me draw on almost all of her treasured possessions. I wrote her poems and stories and she lauded them all with praise worthy of a Pulitzer.

 

So reminisce aside what does all of this have to do with Crohn’s Disease? Well the grieving I do every so often for my Grandmother feels painfully similar to the grieving I do for my life pre-Crohn’s. Right now I’m flaring and feel decidedly awful most of the time; when this happens it sends me into a flurry of anxiety. I worry about how long this will last, how it will be remedied, what adjustments I must make to my life and what it must feel to live with or be around a person such as myself struggling with keeping it all together and not finding much room for anyone or anything else. Sound familiar? Grief is all-consuming and unpredictable just like chronic illness. It strikes when you least expect it and lingers for much longer than you’d like.

 

But sometimes, you forget. Sometimes you feel good and that’s OK. It’s OK to revel in feeling happy despite loss. It’s OK to remember happy times and not feel guilt for what you could or should have done during the bad. So when you are struggling with illness (or grief) and feel lost try to remember the good; and that that good will come back around in time. Focus on what you have and not what you have lost, because sometimes that’s all we can do to get through. xo

Eat, Drink and Be Poorly

When you have a bowel disease the relationship with food can be, at the very least, a complicated one.

In my mind and in my heart I LOVE food. I love the smells, the sights, the taste of it. I love the comfort it brings, the happy memories it evokes, the new experiences it allows. But my stomach HATES it. My stomach physically despises it. Rejects it faster than a 3-legged-puppy at a dog shelter. (Which is something for the record, I would never do)

And therein lies the issue – the one place where food should find its happy, nourishing home before starting its journey into the sewage system, is stunted by an intense, repellent disgust for anything I choose to shovel into my cake-hole.

Food and the partaking in eating it, may seem initially like such a basic human need that we can often lose sight of how wonderful an aspect of life it can be. We associate often unknowingly, food with socializing, with blossoming romance, cultivating friendships, nurturing our children. It is associated with being part of something. This eats into (pardon the pun) a common issue patients with chronic illness have; feeling on the outside of things.

For me the idea of going ‘out for dinner’ is great. I love thinking ahead about what I’ll wear, scoping out the menu in advance to see what looks delicious, anticipating the great conversation I might have in a cosy environment. But then, much like a selfish lover, that thrill disappears as quickly as it comes.

I am then met with the stark reality-reminder of what might actually happen; I’ll worry about what I can wear to disguise the inventible bloating that comes after one morsel, I’ll panic over what I can eat that doesn’t contain an ingredient that will cause me pain (clue: nothing), I’ll worry about a potential lack of bathrooms or my tables’ proximity to a bathroom, and worst of all, I’ll worry about ruining the evening for my companion before the night has even begun. All this anxiety serves [can’t stop won’t stop with the food puns] to put a dampener on what should ideally be an exciting and fun prospect.

Much like any bad relationship, when you love something that causes you nothing but pain you must learn to cut all ties. Not quite as easy with food, due to that pesky aspect of needing it to stay alive.

Food is an inescapable part of life, so in order to avoid an early meet and greet with the Grim Reaper, some form of adaption must take place. We must learn to fit it into our life in a way that causes us the least mental and physical torture. No easy feat. Or should that be no easy feed?! Haha ha ha no you’re right probably not.

For me there has been no ‘diet’ I’ve found to absolve my symptoms (and believe me I’ve looked). Over time I’ve established the main foods and drinks which I know will particularly upset me, I try as much as I can to cut these out. Often IBD is so utterly unpredictable that ‘safe’ foods cause just as much discomfort as others; this is a particular gripe of mine, especially when it takes so much will power not to eat what I love.

On the whole my appetite is as elusive as a vegan at a cattle market. I generally don’t crave food: against my will I’ve conditioned my brain that ‘food = pain’ and this is a hard mentality to break out of. Don’t get me wrong I still eat and drink as much as I am able, I ensure I stay hydrated when I am unable to tolerate food and I seek advice when food is off my proverbial menu [don’t take on the pun-queen unless you want to be humiliated] for longer than I’d like.

I suppose this blog is just a reminder you are not alone in seeing food as an uphill challenge. What may seem like an unthinking aspect of the day can be a stressful and anxiety inducing experience for others. So don’t beat yourself up if you struggle to finish your plateful, just be sensible, patient with yourself and your body and take care of yourself. And if you ever see me eating soup in a steak house please don’t judge.

My Kind of People

Chronic illness is used as such a ‘catch all’ phrase these days. It covers a myriad of illnesses, diseases and disabilities. But then couldn’t all of those words be used in the same vein? Don’t all chronic illnesses ‘disable’ us in one way or another? Make us feel ‘diseased’? 

Chronic, as it relates to illness, is defined as ‘persisting for a long time or constantly recurring’. Its meaning is clearly definable but the number and variety of conditions it covers is certainly not finite.

Health, and especially frequently poor health, naturally hits highs and lows. Sometimes those lows last for what can seem like the longest time and you struggle to see an end to them. This can be hard enough to deal with on your own, but factor in having to communicate your health issues to the outside world and you’re faced with a whole new set of complications to deal with.  Explaining the intricacies of a condition to an outsider can often be intimidating and challenging to say the least; particularly if you are new to it yourself and still learning. When we do discuss our condition with others and don’t get the response or reaction we perhaps expect, it can be quite the setback. Often living with a chronic illness can feel humiliating. It can be embarrassing, distressing and complex. Often we don’t want to talk about our condition, which is wholly our right, of course, yet sometimes our symptoms make that privilege all but impossible. If it is a visible condition it allows for comment, and that’s something we sadly can’t control.

So pulling on at that thread of uninvited comment, a certain infuriating phrase that sticks in my head, and has been said to me upwards of 168798782784240 times, (at last count anyway) is:

 “There always seems to be something wrong with you…”

This is generally said as an off the cuff, (perhaps feeble attempt at humour?) with a snide undertone. It’s often spoken with a question mark at the end of it; as though we are somehow expected to answer to it. It’s not really deserving of a question mark in my humble opinion as it’s more of a statement of fact. I’m not sure what the relevance of such a question is either, other than to remind us that we are ill, ALL THE TIME. Sadly something we are all too aware of already.  The only answer that could be given to such a bizarre poser (and I find it most effective bellowed through a megaphone) is “YES, THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING WRONG WITH ME: IT’S INCURABLE”. But that response only served to get me thrown out of the library and banned from the local church the last 5 times I used it.

It is phrases such as these that are upsetting to someone with a disability and/or illness for many, MANY, reasons. Let me count the ways. (7. There are 7 ways).

1.  It implies we are being untruthful about our health problems. If you have to query in a suspicious tone that expects us to answer for an incurable condition then you nail your ‘I DON’T BELIEVE YOU’ colours firmly to the mast. This funnily enough doesn’t make for a comfortable conversation to follow.

2.  It makes us feel like a nuisance. No person who even remotely cares for another person should make them feel this way. Implying we are using our condition for attention or exploiting it for our own gain is just mean at the root of it.

3.  It singles us out. We don’t want to be sick, and we certainly don’t want to be treated any differently to a ‘normal’ person. Suggesting we are seeking some end goal other than the best
possible health makes us retreat into our shells and that can be increasingly risky for those of us with already wavering mental health.

4.  It makes us feel we are appearing like a hypochondriac. Anyone with a chronic illness dislikes hypochondriacs intensely. We have to eat, sleep and think about illness every day; we don’t need to hear you give us chapter and verse on that one time in 1983 when you had the measles. Just because you perhaps aren’t used to hearing people talk honestly about an incurable condition doesn’t make it any less true when we do.

5.  It silences us from talking about our illness. This is NOT good. We need to talk about our conditions because it allows us to educate, share, unload and learn. The more we remain silent on what we are experiencing the more withdrawn we become and the more ashamed we feel.

6.  It makes us feel embarrassed and ashamed. As above: not good. Something we should never allow ourselves to feel. Chronic conditions can get such bad press; we need to be at the forefront of changing that, not being beaten down by uninformed opinions.

7.  It reminds us that THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING WRONG WITH US. Yes, we KNOW.

On the flip side of this ghastly and mildly insensitive coin however, when met with thoughtlessness of this degree, I often try to mentally counter these statements with any positives I can find in them. Easier said than done, especially when you are still clutching a knife to their throat, but if you take a mental (and maybe physical) step back, and look hard enough you are bound to find something.  Let’s throw the negativity over the balcony, crushing it painfully below, causing irrevocable damage, and try that now.

1. Yes there IS always something wrong with me yet I’m still here, being alive alongside you, making me better than you in so, so many ways, and that’s excluding my impressive rack. 

2.  No, nope, sorry I think that’s all I can come up with. Maybe I’m just not a very
forgiving person.

The issue with phrases like the aforementioned “There always seems to be something wrong with you…” is that, whether intended that way or not, they are simply unkind and just so unnecessary. As I’m not (at time of writing) practiced in mind control, I can’t stop people thinking things like that of course, but I can certainly voice my discomfort when they allow the words to leave their lips. Meaning if you’re going to openly say something along those lines to someone with a chronic illness then you should really be prepared for the potentially messy fallout.

What may seem an entirely innocent comment on our condition to you may come across as a not-so-subtle jibe directed at us for reasons we’ll have to retreat into paranoia to discover. You see, it’s not ‘just a joke’ when you make another human being feel essentially lesser.

Kindness is so easy. It’s often found simply in inaction. It’s effortless! You can be kind by just not saying that thing you know would be taken badly should the person it’s aimed at hear you. Just don’t say it! It’s that simple! You can be kind by taking a moment, just one precious moment, to consider the outcome
of your words. If you have an inkling that what you are about to say to another
human being may be mean or insulting then just don’t say it. NO, you won’t
receive an award for it, but you also won’t receive a black eye, so swings and
roundabouts. Think bad thoughts by all means; we ALL do that. It’s one of the silent joys in life. But in much the same way you wouldn’t follow up saying “I’ll kill him” with then committing
ACTUAL MURDER, you can think we are lazy (for example), without actually
accusing us of being so. 

Maybe just consider this: Are you the type of person who deliberately sets out to upset and offend another human being whose only crime is not acting or looking the way you want or expect them to? If you answered yes to that then I hope you find what’s missing in your life someday. 

(See how easy it is to be kind instead of wishing you dead?)

Hello, I Love You

In the early days of our relationship, when my BF and I used to argue (and we used to argue a LOT), I’d often fall down. Flat out flop unconscious. I’d pass out and he’d have to rouse me. It was in equal parts humiliating and frustrating. I didn’t want to do it – it was out of my control, it was like my body would literally shut down at the first sign of stress. This didn’t happen all the time of course, just occasionally, and he’d naturally be panicked, worried (and confused). Perhaps suspicious even; that I was somehow doing it on purpose; faking it.

I wasn’t. But I entirely understand why he might think I was. It was ‘convenient’ – a distraction from the heat of an argument. Only I’d black out, so the argument was 500miles from my mind when I came round.

The funny thing about all of this is I’m so stubborn and defensive during arguments, that fainting in the midst of it is the absolute last thing I’d want to do. As I’m sure you can appreciate, it’s hard to win an argument when you are unconscious.

Nowadays I’m older and (hopefully) wiser, and I try my utmost to discuss rather than destroy when talking with the man I love. I try not to take things personally or immaturely assume that one cross word is going to be the end of us. I try not to ‘win’ in a game where we should be equals. Thank-fully I also no longer faint when we do get into a disagreement.  

This fainting was a direct and physical reaction to stress. My body couldn’t cope with the extremes and would quite literally shut down. I didn’t know I had Crohn’s Disease back then; I just knew the way my body was reacting was far from normal.

But, as all insecure women are inclined to do, I just lost myself in my own head and logically assumed I was insane. Thank-fully I’m not insane, (diagnosis pending I’m sure) but unfortunately I do have a chronic illness. Knowing that stress is such a massive source of my physical symptoms has allowed me to attempt to manage it. Of course that’s much easier said than done.

But in amongst this assortment of symptoms and barrage of knowledge about an ever changing condition where does the other half of me fit in? The man who has to watch as I collapse in front of him, when I throw up after he’s cooked for me, when I writhe in pain in bed next to him? I feel a great deal of guilt in being ‘sick’ and in love with him. I’m too selfish to leave him of course – can you IMAGINE how often I’d collapse if I saw him with another woman?

He doesn’t want me to leave him of course, which is a great relief to both me and our mortgage provider. 

But due to one of our twosome being in a state of permanent illness, he is the one who has to see the person he loves in pain. He is the one who feels helpless and frustrated for me. He is the one who has to spend nights alone when I retire to bed ill yet again. He is the one.

I love him. And I love all the partners of women and men with chronic illness for their unyielding patience and compassion. It must be hard to maintain your own personality when everyone around you asks “How is she/he?” before “How are you?” It must be stifling when huge chunks of your conversations are about someone else. So it’s important we remind the people we love they are appreciated. It might be hard for us to tell you that when we are consumed by pain or our own misfortune, but we feel it. Patients become selfish because we are thinking about illness 99% of our day – we are sad and exasperated and don’t want to feel the way we do. But we are in there waiting for you to pull us out of the doldrums, and remind us we are still more than an illness.

We owe you the same courtesy; so please know that we appreciate you and everything you do, and often everything you don’t do; every time you don’t roll your eyes when we complain for the 50^th time in an hour, when you don’t have a tantrum when we cancel a night out, when you don’t show your frustration when you’ve cooked for us and we can’t eat it.

We see it all. We see you, and we love you. 

Ache News

Eight years ago today I was in hospital on one of my increasingly common ‘investigatory’ stays.  I was incredibly ill, confused, and afraid and certainly without the first clue what Crohn’s Disease was.

I would eventually be diagnosed with the disease approximately 2 months later, followed by my first surgery in the Jan of the following year. To say it was a trying time is to put it milder than an IBD patient’s curry.

I’d been advised I had arthritis in the early part of this same year and was barely getting to grips with that when this new pain began to strike. So loooong story short, within 12 months I found myself with two life-changing chronic illnesses, unsure of my future and facing severe surgery. 

The reason I recall this grim year is a little because it’s been on my mind lately due to feeling distinctly below par, but for the larger part because I’ve been trying to recall how I felt at that time, which let’s face it, wasn’t great. Lately there have been countless articles and ‘celebrity’ statements on IBD strewn across the internet and beyond like disused wet wipes. These articles I refer to make comment on the ways in which patients can ‘cure’ their disease, through means of juice diets, special healing crystals, ‘unconventional’ medicine, veganism, thinking positively, preaching to the Great Lord Zuuuuzo, and COMING OFF MEDICATION, amongst others. 

OK, so some of those may be slight exaggerations for comedic purposes, but in all honesty after reading some of these dumpster-worthy think pieces you’d be hard pressed to establish which ones. I’m not about to slate any one person/publication in particular as it’s not massively helpful and still directs more views towards these outlets they sorely don’t deserve.

All I will say is that it’s very important we as patients/loved ones of patients/just decent interested human beings are selective and careful in what we accept as fact where it comes to IBD, and any chronic illness for that matter. When I hark back to my own state of mind as a freshly diagnosed patient I worry so much about those men and women in the same boat as my own eight years ago. They will be encountering these same articles, (some of which have even been publicised by leading Crohn’s charities), and feeling hopeful there are simple fixes to their condition. There aren’t. IBD is a complex, incurable disease.

Now without that meaning to sound incredibly grim, sometimes we can’t always sugar-coat facts. We shouldn’t. We should never go into any life-changing event with our eyes and ears wide open. Of course I am only too well aware that being diagnosed with any illness is terrifying, whatever age you are or stage in your life you are at. When I got sick I was in a secure and loving relationship; but I still assumed my partner would leave me, because I felt almost instantaneously worthless. That is long since passed, and my attitude to my illness has changed beyond all recognition, but from time to time I still want to scream and cry with frustration that this sickness will never leave.

I don’t want to preach that patients shouldn’t have hope in times of uncertainty and fear; we all should. But we have to be careful about where we take our information from. When we are in states of frustration and vulnerability we shouldn’t have to filter our knowledge to suit – but sadly we do. 

We need to ensure we take information on our illness from reputable sources; stick to our doctors, consultants, medical experts. If you do venture further afield, then stick to articles and blogs with a good following, who focus on aspects of mental-health, relationships and ways to adapt to the illness.

The most important point to remember is if you encounter writing which advises a certain way of life/diet to ‘cure’ you, consider it an instant red flag. If it were curable you wouldn’t need to hear it from a Z-list celebrity in your spam folder. 

It's a Kind of Magic

A few days ago, a horrific attack happened in Manchester. I don’t need to describe the events again as I’m sure you have all read about it in painful detail, and really, I don’t want to; it’s so greatly unpleasant and upsetting. Our threat level in the UK is currently ‘critical’ and although I know those are cold hard facts that I know to be true, it still feels as if we are watching this all unfold in a sort of live action movie. 

It’s almost too impossible to comprehend the level of depravity and evil some people are capable of, and practically on our own doorstep. 

What does come out of these tragedies is the resolute power of the human spirit. Its always so heartening to see people go above and beyond to help others in situations such as these, where really we act without thought for occasions we could never have prepared for. The way humans act when under extreme pressure, or in abject danger is almost overwhelming in its beauty sometimes. 

When these moments happen I wonder if I am a good person. I wonder what I would do if faced with someone in pain or in a situation where I had to act now or run. Of course I would like to think should a situation such as this arise I’d do everything and anything I could to help another person, but we never quite know do we? I wonder if I could be selfless and put the needs of others before my own. Its what I’ve been brought up to believe should be the case, despite years of adulthood being advised we should 'look after number one'.

Well looking after number one hasn’t gotten us very far thus far. Presidents' aside perhaps. 

Not to say I don’t care for myself as best I can, when I can, because I do and it's important to do so. But the idea that we should put ourselves first at every available opportunity grates on me. It's a common attitude and one which serves to alienate.

There are so many people in my life I care for; I love. I can’t even bear thinking about how it would feel if one of them was taken from me suddenly and without warning. It is the definition of incomprehensible.

Therefore I think I know deep down the way I'd act if faced with sudden tragedy - with bravery. Its what I aspire to at least. 

It's easy to write off our behaviour when we aren’t called upon to be ‘heroes’. We can shrug off the responsibility or guilt at feeling helpless as we perhaps are not in a physical position to help. 'I wasn't there, what can I do?' Etc. It’s easy to do/think such a thing. We all do it – make excuses to ourselves and others as to why we can’t help. 

But we can help one another. Every day. In even the teeniest of ways. 

We can simply treat one another with kindness and without judgment. 

We can utilise patience where normally we would act with frustration. 

We can complement one another where normally we may internalise jealousy. 

We can help one another by listening and being a physical and comforting presence instead of making others feel pressured and uncomfortable. 

We can do all those things with barely any effort at all because they are all within us. 

We don’t have to save lives to make a difference to someone’s life. 

(Unless of course you are currently performing a life-saving operation then please stop reading this and continue with your important work). 

We can make someone feel great just by being kind to them. That fact alone is so simple yet so effective it genuinely reduces me to happy tears. So when things are painful and hard in any area of our lives, let’s try and reach out to one another with kindness and compassion; it won’t solve any of the worlds greater problems, but it might just make life a little happier for those of us still lucky enough to be around. 

Love always, K ❤️

 

Every-Body's Gotta Learn Sometimes

Something said to me in passing recently got me thinking about the general ‘outrage’ experienced almost daily in living with chronic illness.

 

Personally I’d say I’m a bit of an old hand at this ‘illness’ lark, so I’ve experienced my fair share of insensitive, thoughtless or just plain mean, comments linked to my condition.

 

The most recent of these was uttered by someone I am friendly with and who I respect and even like as a human being.

 

(Names withheld to protect identities/avoid them being chased down the street with flaming torches)

 

This person commented on my weight, and joked that I’m ‘lucky not to be unable to absorb food’. As if my incurable illness is some sort of fad diet that I use on occasions when I want to look Oscar ready.

My gut (pun always intended, don’t you know me at all?!) reaction here was of annoyance. Not outrage, just annoyance and frustration. I feebly tried to convey that it’s not something I consider to be ‘lucky’ to have, and that I am seriously ill. I mentioned that I would love to be able to enjoy food and be a steady healthy weight, but that all of that just came out sounding a little bitter and whiny. Perhaps because the original comment was not intended as a slight on me or my illness, but jokey ‘banter’ implying nothing more than that the joker would like to be a little slimmer. Was I overreacting? I’m sure both of us have different viewpoints on that because we both entered into the conversation with our own (wildly different) expectations.

 

Problem here though is that comments thrown out in jest often have ripples which cause much more damage than any original intention.

 

When sweeping comments are made it often serves to alienate people in one fluid motion. For example how did this particular person know I was happy with my weight? (For the record I’m not; I’d much rather be a little heavier, I’ve been this weight since I was 12 years old – it’s not ideal for a 33 year old woman). My weight also serves as a constant reminder that my health hasn’t improved. If I’m not putting any weight on I’m still not getting the nutrients and vitamins I need to help me reach my ultimate goal of NOT DYING.

 

In the early days of living with chronic illness I found myself in a state of constant simmering rage. I was angry at being stuck with this disease and all its off-shoots, and the smallest of insensitive comments would send  my mood stratospheric. Not good for my stress levels and certainly not good for my health in the short or long term. Nowadays I feel a little mellower. Don’t get me wrong I still feel that sharp desire to behead someone who mocks my afflictions, but that’s natural isn’t it?! That wholesome urge to kill ignorant strangers? ISNT IT??

 

I digress. My point here is that it’s important in amongst the slew of unkind and ignorant comments we hear, to listen for the ones where we can educate. It’s imperative we take stock and put out own health at the top of the conversational pecking order; is it really that vital that we bubble with rage at a colleague who says something we deem inappropriate for example? Can we respond in a way that doesn’t involve knives? All of these questions I try to consider now when someone says something that makes me feel vulnerable or frustrated in living with this illness.

 

The simple fact is people will always upset and frustrate us. We all do it to one another on a daily basis. But intention plays a huge part – we should always stunt ourselves from flying into a rage by taking a few seconds to question whether whatever was said was done out of malice, or cruelty. Was it ‘just a joke’ (albeit one at our expense) and do we really want to waste already lacking energy in diving headfirst into an argument about it?

 

Now when someone says something I find offensive I try to call it out. I tell someone if they’ve upset me, and I make sure I come from a place of love and education when I do it. I don’t tolerate what I don’t deem an acceptable way to discuss my condition. I try to face rudeness head on by meeting it with logic and not just unbridled emotion. It seems to be working for me because I haven’t murdered anyone in at least a month. A new personal best.

 

Ignorance is an opportunity for education, so I try my best to put my rage on the backburner and take it.

But if someone slams the door in my Mum’s face in a shopping centre, you better believe I WILL KILL AGAIN.

Ari You Gonna Be My Girl?

In a few days my friend Ari is coming all the way from Argentina to holiday in Scotland (and see me). She’ll be staying with my partner and I for lots of the trip and we will even go away on a little mini holiday of our own in the middle. This will be the first time we’ve ‘met’ face to face after talking on the internet for maybe 3 or 4 years.

We chat EVERYDAY.

That’s rare in this day and age (and certainly for me) probably because I don’t feel that interesting or engaging most of the time. Yet this friendship is easy, fun and loving. It puts me at ease and there are no judgements on either side. She just makes me laugh and feel precious and our bond feels effortless. I can’t wait to meet my darling Ari in real life (and prove to everyone she isn’t a 45 year old man from Croydon).

Although I feel I know Ari very well and am not in any way nervous about meeting her, I’ve been thinking about how bold a move it is for her to fly halfway across the world for the sake of a friendship (and vegetarian haggis obvs). Friendships often get harder to make as we age so that’s one of many reasons why this one is so important to me. It came into my life at just the right time and now feels like it (she) has always been there.

I’m in my 30’s now.

So as these things do, many of my childhood and teenage friendships have dissipated over time; wrapped themselves up in quite a neat and healthy bow. Without meaning to sound harsh, some friendships just serve a purpose at a certain time and struggle to survive beyond their particular environment. 

Work relationships for example: once a close colleague leaves, or you move on it can be a tricky tightrope to walk in terms of whether or not you should maintain what may essentially have been kinship over a water-cooler and not much more. Thank-fully I’ve made a few AMAZING friends through work in my own life and I can’t see those relationships ever fading. I think the feeling is mutual on both sides and that’s comforting (and pressure free).

As most people with chronic illness will understand, maintaining relationships can be hard, and often disappointing. When people we love prove themselves to be flaky or uninterested in what is essentially a massive part of our lives it can be a bitter pill to swallow. And we already have enough of them to ingest.

Friends who love us will make an attempt to understand what we are going through, they will check in with us regularly and make us laugh, or simply give us a shoulder to cry on when we need it. With us returning the favour of course. Friendships when you are sick should still be a two-way street; we don’t become patients rather than people, but they may just need some adaption.

When anything changes in life we try our best to accept, adapt and move on, and the same goes for pals. We become adaptable. Adaptipals if you will. You won’t? No problem, I still love you, pals. xo

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much a chronic illness can change a person. Typically this phenomenon isn’t unique to a diagnosis of illness of course; a person can ‘change’ for countless reasons. But one of the most substantial is a sudden and drastic alteration to our life. An unexpected shock. A bombshell.

Of course not all diagnoses of illness follow this ‘bombshell’ route – many of us are eventually diagnosed with something after a long and protracted period of sickness. Symptoms build and we experience all the ups and downs and confusion that goes alongside being continually ill, rather than just waking up one morning and finding ourselves ‘diseased’.

It might not seem much of a revelation to talk about a person changing due to illness. It’s not. Being told you have an illness which is incurable and/or will be a continual struggle for the remainder of your life has a huge mental and physical impact on a person.

The bright side of this process of change is that said change doesn’t have to be negative. That’s something I certainly found difficult to grasp for a long time after my own diagnosis; I focused solely on what and whom I’d lost, what I could no longer do and what this illness had done to strip away from who I used to be. It made me sad, frustrated, despondent and so, so angry.

Anger is powerful.

It can be a cause for action, a good catalyst to spur us into productive fight – we use our anger at the injustices of the world to fight back against governments, against unfair laws, against sexism, racism, bigotry of any kind. So undoubtedly anger is not always a bad thing. For someone like myself who has routinely hated confrontation I’ve tried to appreciate that anger is something that cannot (and shouldn’t) be contained forever. It has to have an outlet, and that choice of outlet should be one of our choosing which doesn’t cause damage to you, others or your own heart.

What I mean by that is I’ve been on the receiving end of anger which hasn’t been funnelled in a safe way – where it comes out as spat-out obscenities you’ll regret later, where it comes out through hasty and stupid choices, or through a clenched fist. None of these scenarios end well, and they certainly don’t lend to us being well.

Anger for me is a part of life.

I’m angry a lot and I wish I weren’t. I have a lot not to be angry about – I have a job I enjoy, I get to write, I have a loving family and friends, and I have a partner who without whom I’d surely turn to dust.

But I am angry because I have a chronic illness that causes me to spend my life in pain. I have learned (as best as anyone can) to live and adapt to it, but my condition is ever changing and unpredictable. I’m angry because I am someone who now struggles massively with anxiety and suffers from depression. That may all have come to my door with or without Crohn’s, but nevertheless it’s here and it’s the ‘thing’ I’m angry at.

I don’t think I’ll ever stop feeling some form of anger at being ‘sick’, but like every aspect of this illness what matters now is how I cope with it. How I choose to act and how I live despite it. I hope that that is without bitterness and resentment, because as much as I wish I wasn’t a permanent patient, I am grateful for whom I have ‘changed’ into throughout my sickly-life.

My heart is full of love and lust for life. I want to live life to the full and I get angry and frustrated when it feels like that life is being stunted or shortened. But as I can’t use my anger to paint banners and march to Parliament to rid myself (and all of you) of this illness, I can use it to remind myself that simply feeling it means I’m alive. If that isn’t something to fight for I don’t know what is.

Back On The Pain Gang

Like many, many people with an incurable illness I suffer from chronic pain. 

Pain is not often the crux of my writing because I tend to favour focusing on talking about things I feel I have some semblance of control over; like my relationships, my mental health and my attitude towards my illness. 

Pain is a whole other topic that I don't usually discuss in detail for many reasons; namely because I know a lot of people who are new to this disease read my ramblings and I don't want to terrify them, I don't like upsetting my loved ones, and I like to not think about pain when I can. Often it's none of those things and I simply can't deal with anything but my pain. 

Pain is often nigh on impossible to quantify. It's also incredibly difficult to explain to someone on the outside of your own car-crash carcass. 

My partner asked me earlier if I was OK when I truly wasn't and I said "Fine... actually no just in excruciating pain" which made him laugh - not because he finds my misfortune amusing, (he's not Christian Grey), but it was a hollow laugh where he acknowledged a bit of relief at me finally catching myself and being honest. 

The reason the "I'm fine" often comes into play is because it's easier. Not in the long term I grant you, but in the short omg-i-think-im-dying term. It's exhausting being in pain and the last thing we generally want to do is talk about it. 

My hair hurts today. My teeth hurt. How do you explain that to someone who doesn't experience pain on a regular if not daily basis? They think you are overreacting. They don't have anything to compare it to so they work backwards from their own experience and assume you must be exaggerating. We see you disbelieve us. We see you pity us. And we resent it. 

We are forced to talk about pain, namely describe it, a lot. We have to do it to help our doctors solve any medical mysteries, to get the pain relief we need, to express why we are unable to do something/someone.  

We have to tell if it's 'dull', 'stabbing', 'sharp', 'persistent' and various other words used to describe Law & Order. I don't really know what the majority of these words mean in relation to what I feel but I have to use something; it seems screaming incoherently and performing an elaborate death rattle gets you ejected from the ward and I can't risk that happening again. 

The problem with talking about pain when you’re ‘in’ it, is that it allows room for little else other than feeling it. It can be genuinely difficult to even form a coherent sentence when you are experiencing it. I suppose that’s why doctors have developed these charts; the ‘how many out of 10’ and the ilk, for speed and accuracy in treating us. But those charts don’t apply when you are talking to people outside of the doctor’s surgery. 

Pain is subjective and can be all encompassing. Tolerances of pain differ from person to person and can even change over time. When someone is chronically ill pain is a daily occurrence and something we don't always wish to wax lyrical about. That's why we try to adapt our lives around it. Sometimes that's not always possible but on good days, good moments, it is. 

We might not tell you we're in pain sometimes and that's OK. It's our choice and it might just be our way of distracting ourselves; so please be patient and don't expect miracles from us. Don’t let us see that we are frustrating you if we are. I know that may seem selfish but we honestly won’t have the energy to get into any form of debate with you, from brokering a trade deal between countries to forgetting to take the bin out, it’s all impossible.  

Give us a bit of time to feel ‘normal' again once the worst is over and don’t make us feel that we should apologise for it. Even though I’m 99.9% sure we will later anyway. 

Just be kind to us, it really is that simple.

A Little Bump and Kind

I don’t have daughters. I don’t have children at all for that matter. I have a huge dog, a cat and am soon to have another little kitten brought into our fur-filled household. All of this aside, I do have friends with beautiful babies who are blossoming into incredible little people before my eyes. I don’t doubt that perhaps one day I’ll desire a family of my own; I’m in a committed long term relationship and it’s the ‘done thing’ after all; but for now I’m happy as I am. We’re happy as we are. If that changes, then so be it, but for now; my womb my business.

It is odd the interest in your reproductive organs that grows as we age. I haven’t been ‘blessed’ with a child. I haven’t ‘realised’ it’s what I want yet. I’ll ‘never know until I do it’. It’s common to be left feeling patronised and like a borderline oddity when everyone around you seems to understand what you want and need better than you do.

Childless women are just that for a myriad of different reasons. Some of us are not in secure relationships, some of us are unable to conceive, some of our partners have issues with fertility, and some of us simply don’t want to have a child. I know that is an alien concept to so, so many women. I know that from 99% of the conversations I have with mothers. Thank-fully, my own close friends who have families are much more accepting of what I choose to do with my vagina, and that’s great. They understand that children are not for everyone and that many of us can still (incredibly) lead happy and fulfilled lives without disrupting our sleep patterns and tearing our genitals to shreds.

That said I do feel a strange kinship with my friends who have children. Although it’s not necessarily something I want for my own future, the love I feel for their spawn often takes me by surprise. It helps me understand the unconditional nature of a mothers love in a small way.

I feel the same pull from the young women who message me about their illness. Some to talk about a diagnosis or some just to let me know they appreciate having someone else speak up about IBD/mental health. I feel a responsibility to the girls and young women who follow my blog to be respectful of their choices. Their fears are universal and have been felt by all of us to some degree. I don’t have a ‘fear’ of starting a family I should clarify; I just don’t want to. That doesn’t mean I don’t deserve the same respect as a mother receives. My choices shouldn’t be dismissed or belittled for not conforming to some sort of perceived ideal, and this serves to remind me how important it is that we, as adult women; aunts, friends, mothers; listen and respect the choices of our ‘daughters’.

When we talk to one another we should try harder to listen, truly listen, to what is said (and often what is unsaid) before judging. We all do it, I’m not claiming to be as pure as the driven snow here, but I do think it’s now more important than ever we help young women to grow accepting of themselves and one another. Life is hard and growing up even harder, throw into the mix the possibility of a chronic/mental illness and it can be difficult to see past the next few hours within the day let alone make choices that will affect the rest of our lives. 

So my ‘motherly’ advice (from a certified non-mother) is to simply be kind to your kind.

Today is National Kindness Day (apparently), so what better day to start! xo

Fake That

Hello.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ‘faking it’. No, not in the bedroom; my years of shrieking in faux pleasure to please someone are long gone since I met a man who knows what goes where (and cares if I experience joy). What I refer to is more the daily ‘faking it’ we do in living with a chronic illness. We fake feeling ‘well’ everyday of our lives.

I personally haven’t been around 'online' for a wee while. You might have noticed; you might not have. That’s fine. People come and go out of our lives all the time and especially in this digital age it’s sometimes even harder to keep on top of all the people in our real lives and in our phones. So I pre-empt this blog with that wee nugget so the people I love don’t feel any guilt for maybe not having noticed the fact that I’ve been struggling for quite a while now.

The main reason people haven’t noticed is because I’m a good actress. I know how to act happy and well because I’ve been doing it for so long. So long in fact that I often don’t know how not to ‘act’ and just ‘be’. The reason this has been playing on my mind lately is because it’s something I worry has slowly but surely assimilated itself into all areas of my life without my being fully aware of it.  This is a long winded way of telling you all I've been feeling blue for a while now. I've been finding life and everything in it borderline impossible to bear and I’ve become tired of hiding that from everyone.

 I am the Queen of advocating that we should all be open and honest about our feelings, our illnesses, and speak without fear and without shame about our mental health. Advice I haven’t truly taken myself for quite a while now. The truth is I am feeling a bit crushed by constant and crippling anxiety. I've been unable to feel much of anything. I've been 'play-acting' my emotions. When the truth is that I am not sure what to feel and when. I perhaps portray what I *think* people want to see or what will help me navigate a situation. I paint on a smile when I need to and it fades as quickly as it comes. For a while there I couldn't remember when I last felt happy for more than a fleeting moment.

That, of course, has absolutely no bearing on the people around me. No one ‘makes’ someone depressed. There are aspects of behaviour that can of course exacerbate an already anxious persons' mood but none of that is applicable in my case. No one has done this to me. I haven’t even done it to myself; I’ve just maybe let it happen without interference.

 So what to do? Please, please, don’t pity me. I've just been taking a little break from everything to get myself well. It’s hard to stop and take stock of what is making you unhappy and I’m doing that. I’m on medication to help my muddled head and reduce my anxiety and I’ll get there. I'm happier now than I have been in a while just admitting it all. It's good to speak up when you're able, so please do if you're struggling. It's so much more of an achievement than you might think.

 So thank-you, and I love you, and I’ll see you soon xo

 

Nerve Agent

I’ve always been shy.

It took me a good few weeks to stop weeping for my Mum aged 5 starting school. I would go beetroot-faced when asked a question in front of the class aged 10, and I’d laugh nervously like a borderline lunatic when a boy so much as looked at me, aged 15.

 

Most of that has dissipated these days, thankfully. Although I do still cling onto my Mum’s foot every time she attempts to leave my house, but like the majority of us, I’m a work in progress.

 

Those childhood nerves and inhibitions may have subsided gradually as I’ve aged and been opened up to more experiences and seen a little more of the world, but they seem to have been replaced with something almost even more intrusive;

 

Anxiety.

 

This wasn’t something I was bothered by to a massive degree ‘pre-Crohn’s’. But it’s something I now often struggle to get a handle on. Unlike my Mothers’ ankle. It certainly wasn’t something I’d have considered to be an ‘issue’ either until I realised it was impacting my own life.

 

There is a big difference from saying you are an ‘anxious person’ to actually trying to make a dent in coping with it.

My anxiety manifests itself in many ways:

 

• I’ll overthink anything and everything.
• I’ll work myself up into a frenzy about the ‘what if’s’ of any given situation.
• I’ll put off doing things through nerves.
• I’ll stare at the phone until it stops ringing.
• I’ll talk and babble too much to fill what I’ve decided is an ‘awkward’ silence.

 

Anxiety is a common issue with those of us with chronic illness because we spend a lot of our time thinking about ‘it’. We have a lot of factors to… factor in to our life alongside the normal day to day activities that we all undertake. Whether the issue is with mobility, pain, bathroom worries or mental health issues; we all have our own fears and apprehensions surrounding our illness.

 

Of course getting stuck in our own heads is often dangerous and isolating, so step one in overcoming the worst of this is really in talking about our worries. When we do this we often find they are sorely unfounded and based on nothing more than our overactive imaginations. Not always, but often. When we decide how someone is feeling/thinking about us, we also insult them, and eliminate the chance of them proving us wrong. We push people away through using our own fears as a barrier. Look, I don’t have the answers on how to cope with this, I just want to share with you that you’re not alone in feeling like an insane person from time to time!

 

What works for me may not work for you, but talking is really important. Don’t be afraid to admit you are scared and nervous and that its overwhelming you. It so much more common than you think. People who love you and/or doctors can help to give you clarity on your feelings. Stop beating yourself up for something that is simply a factor of an ongoing illness. It’s not shameful to admit you are mentally struggling; quite the opposite in fact.

 

So the next time someone from Accounts doesn’t say ‘hi’ back to you in the morning at work, maybe don’t spend all day wondering what horrific atrocity you’ve committed against them and accept that maybe they just didn’t hear you.

 

That is the case isn’t it Linda? You just didn’t hear me? LINDA…?!?

Diseasey Peasy

I receive quite a lot of messages and emails from young people who have recently been diagnosed with IBD. It makes me happy and sad in equal measure; happy that they reaching out to talk to someone about their worries (albeit a decidedly unqualified person like me), and sad because they are struggling with something incredibly distressing on top of all the usual, more common yet challenging aspects of ‘growing up’. Some of them are just looking for reassurance and advice on how best to live with a chronic illness; some of them don’t want to live at all. 

 

I do of course reply to these messages, as quickly as I can and with as much information as I can, but I often feel at a loss as to what to say to soothe a young man or woman who’s experiences perhaps mirror my own fears from several years earlier. I try to think about what I wanted to hear when I was diagnosed: what might have made the whole thing a little less scary, and I hit a frustrating brick wall.

 

I was lucky myself in the sense that I was (officially) diagnosed when I was in my mid-twenties. I certainly didn’t feel lucky of course; I was heartbroken, confused and devastated. I imagine it feels that way irrespective of your age mind you, we all have different tolerances and being told you are never getting better stings regardless of what stage in your life you are at.

 

So I suppose what I’m clumsily trying to express is that I feel at a loss at times to help those who are experiencing what I have. What I am.

 

Then I try to take a breath and remember that all I wanted to hear when I was first sick was that life would go on. I still do. Don’t get me wrong – I undoubtedly would not have thanked anyone for spouting that at me at the time of my diagnosis; I didn’t want life to go on if I’d have to carry this disease with me for the remainder of it. I didn’t believe it and I couldn’t accept it. But as I’ve grown alongside my illness (I’m now in my mid-thirties), I’ve found my outlook has changed along with my priorities. All I care about now is my own happiness and that of those around me. My illness is still a huge part of my life and always will be, one that can consume me from time to time, but those moments pass. Chronic illness is a slippery path whereby sometimes we wobble a little, sometimes we can’t get on an even keel, but nevertheless we never lie down to it; we don’t have that luxury.

 

But the truth is, our life does go on. We are incredibly lucky in that sense. We will have to make adaptions to those lives to make room for this illness, we don’t like that but it’s easier than trying to bat it away like a pesky wasp at a jam sandwich. We have to accept it and stop fighting its basic existence. Denial is fruitless and prolongs the period of time it takes to come to terms with having an incurable illness.

 

Don’t get me wrong here though, I’m not implying ANY of this is easy; sometimes I even have a little cry myself when I feel low – I often feel I’m back to square one with this and the frustration of that can be overwhelming. But if I’ve learnt anything since I was diagnosed it’s the importance of talking. Talk to your parents, your friends, your nurse, talk to me! Don’t push yourself into it – there’s no shame in that either; the last thing I wanted to do at first was talk about this with anyone, but eventually that changed and it became more of a comfort and camaraderie than a fear.

 

So please remember that you are not alone.

 

Things will get easier and you will learn to live with this. Like every challenge in life it feels monumental at first, but the more steps you take towards dealing with it the easier it becomes. I’m not in any way saying I love having a bowel disease – I hate it – but it has also taught me boundless things about my own body, its shown me a strength I never thought I could find and its brought me closer to the people I love. It’s made me value my own life, and allowed me an opportunity to help me help you to value yours.

 

So if you take anything from my ramblings let it be this: disease is hard and scary and intimidating, but your life is worth the challenge.