Chronically Fabulous

This is the way I prefer to think of myself, because let’s face it, you need to be pretty fecking fabulous to end up with not one, not two but THREE chronic illnesses haven’t you?!

You read that right… Three chronic illnesses. Now you’re wondering what’s wrong with me when I look so ‘normal’ right?

I have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Fibromyalgia and Asthma.

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis leaves me like an empty battery permanently. The smallest activity has me falling asleep everywhere and anywhere. I mean that literally. I have literally fallen asleep in lectures, in nightclubs, in cinemas, at restaurants… it’s a talent really. Almost a hidden super power. It also causes me memory issues, pain, nausea, dizziness, weight gain from an inability to exercise, the worlds shittest immune system and lots of other crappy symptoms.

Fibromyalgia provides me with a daily intake of an above average number of pain medications; none of which touch my pain or help do much besides make me painfully constipated. It gives me wide spread pain across my whole body, that doesn’t give up, that makes it difficult to walk any distance and some days, I can’t get out of bed. It also gives me cognitive issues, poor balance, dizziness, amongst others.

Asthma e.g my lungs hate me and I hate them.

So there’s a quick run through of why I am chronically fabulous. I get up every day and smile even with these conditions. I’ve lived with them for 10 years and the battle probably won’t ever be won but I do continue to fight.

I face my illnesses with humour because I’ve always been taught that if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry and I’m not about that life. I’d have drowned by now if I cried every time one of these illnesses screwed me over.

I’m now 25, an aspiring nurse (insane, yes, impossible, no) and I pass my time obsessively reading any book I can get my hands on.

I plan to document my good days and my bad so that I can track my journey. It’s often the worst moments that stick in our memories and I don’t want to lose sight of the days where I kicked the worlds ass.

So for now, I’ll shut up but until next time..

Love, light and laughter from me to you x

The journey is well underway…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and so much has happened since my last little waffle.

Matthew and I had a beautiful holiday in Egypt back in August where we went snorkelling on the coral reefs, cruising around the Red Sea in 47 degree Celsius temperatures (I’m sure you can imagine the colour of us both after that 🙄). We celebrated my birthday and as the sun was going down, Matthew and I walked along the beach where he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife 😍😁 Of course I said yes!

We returned from Egypt and told our families of our engagement and they are as excited as we are.

On the 31st August, we moved into our beautiful new home ready for me starting university and the next chapter of our life together.

On the 4th September, my cat who had been missing for 15 months was found and on the 06th September I picked him up from the RSPCA and bought him home to where he belongs.

Fast forward to the 24th September and I started my Adult Nursing BSc at University of Surrey, eek! It’s now been over a month since I started and it’s been a whirlwind of excitement, new knowledge & meeting like-minded individuals from all walks of life. It’s so exciting to be on my way to becoming a registered nurse and achieving my dream. I feel blessed every day that I go into university that I get to take another step towards graduation. I know the road ahead may be rocky, completing a hardcore degree with two chronic illnesses and planning a wedding but I’ve got this 🙏🏻

Thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog and following my journey. I promise to try to post more frequently & to keep you all posted on this mad little journey I’m on 💗

Yesterday I got to celebrate the completion of my Access to Higher Education: Nursing and Healthcare Professions diploma. The overall course was worth 60 credits. 45 of those credits were graded. I achieved 39 Distinctions and 6 Merits and passed all of the ungraded units.

I am officially a Student Nurse in Adult Nursing and I couldn’t be happier right now.

I have spent the last 9 months with an amazing group of individuals who all have their own personal reason for wanting to pursue Nursing and each one of them has taught me so much.

They have given me massive amounts of support, love and kindness throughout the course, helping me to stay positive and achieve my dream whilst coping with chronic illness and working full-time.

They have each been there to make me laugh, smile and give me a much-needed kick up the arse at times.

The photo above is full of future nurses; Adult nurses, Children’s nurses, Mental Health nurses and Midwives.

I’m so proud of each and every single one of the individuals in that photograph & a few others who couldn’t be there to share the celebrations.

Here’s to the future; no matter where it may take us.

Let’s talk about excessive sweating & the chub rub club.

We’ve all had those feels in summer months. We’ve picked a gorgeous dress, skirt or pair of shorts, we’re trying to feel good about ourselves and not let our fear of being judged by others stop us feeling the breeze on our knees in the midst of a hot summers day and then BAM, chub rub attacks.
It’s a bastard. I know it. You know it. Pretty sure Mother Nature laughs her ass off about knowing it and it feels like there’s nothing we can do about it. Cheers love. I’ll just sweat over here in trousers for the whole summer so my thighs don’t start forest fires on the walk to the shops.

BUT

Apparantly, there are solutions out there for those of us with friendly thighs and a tendency to excessively sweat. Who knew? I certainly bloody didn’t otherwise I wouldn’t have spent every summer since puberty began being paranoid about my underarm sweat patches, my inability to control my bodily perspirations and hiding inside like an angsty teenager way into my twenties. Below I’m going to go into a bit of depth about each option I have found, if I’ve tried it I’ll offer my experiences and hopefully, we’ll achieve some form of a dry summer rather than an Indian monsoon season.

The National Health Service says excessive sweating is ‘sweating when your body doesn’t need to cool down’ and has a mini list of things you can do to “help yourself”. These include:

• Wearing loose-fitting clothings to minimise signs of sweating.
• Wear socks that absorb moisture and change your socks at least twice a day.
• Wear leather shoes and try to wear different shoes day to day.

Now, I don’t mean to be critical, I know it’s good advice to some extent, but let’s just go through those and see how they actually help those of us who do sweat excessively.

Wearing loose-fitting clothings to minimise signs of sweating – This will inevitably end in a sweaty me wearing a sleeveless maxi dress, cursing my thighs for chaffing and being paranoid about the sweat that’s staining the underarms of my sleeveless dress.

Wear socks that absorb moisture and change your socks at least twice a day – It’s summer. I am not a weirdo who wears socks with sandals and have no intention of starting now. Also, MY FEET ARE NOT MY MAIN ISSUE.

Wear leather shoes and try to wear different shoes day to day – If I did have the excessive sweating on my feet, the last thing I’d want is to make that abhorrently obvious by having my sweat-soaked socks squeaking against the inside of my leather shoes letting the whole world know that I’m walking in personal mobile puddles. Grand.

So after reading this advice, I proceeded to check out the Hyperhidrosis UK website to see if they could offer me any advice on how to manage my one-lady sweat storm.

The self-help advice they gave was as follows:

• Use emollient based washes, not soaps.
• Use antiperspirant and not just deodarant. Anti-perspirants containing aliminium chloride are recommended and are available online or over-the-counter. These include Anhydrol Forte (roll-on), Driclor (roll-on) or Odaban (spray). Use at your own caution though as there has been research into a link between certain cancers/Alzheimer’s Disease and aliminium chloride. (Do your reading :))
• There is an aliminium chloride free anti-perspirant called IXAL that doesn’t seal the pores of the sweat glands but should reduce sweating and moisture skin. (Just what we need, more moisture)
• Wear natural fibres e.g. cotton, linen, wool or silk.
• Use absorbent clothing protection pads. (These have never worked for me, they moved a lot, were very visibly obvious, rubbed my skin and were uncomfortable).
• Avoid spicy foods, caffeine and alcohol as these can increase sweating.
• Don’t smoke.

Next step is to see your GP who can & may be willing to offer the below treatments:

• A prescription antiperspirant to apply to the affected areas at night. (Your underarms may itch and become sore when wearing this. I tried it for a week, barely slept and was left wanting to scratch my armpits off. I’m not saying this will happen to everyone, but I thought it might be worth including my experience.)
• Referral to a specialist, such as a dermatologist.
• If it is just your feet that are affected, you may get a referral to a podiatrist.

Iontophoresis

Particuraly effective on hands, feet and underarms.
Low voltage electrical current passed through the skin which is immersed in shallow trays of water.
Special pads/trays required for underarms.
Works for 70-80% of people.
Successful treatment: 7 sessions over 4 week period then top-ups every week to 2 weeks.
4 sessions before noticeable reduction to sweating.
20 minute treatment time for hands, 30 minutes for feet.
Can be provided in hospital by dermatologists then you’d need to buy own machine.
Do not need prescription or doctors letter to buy machine, you will not pay VAT in the UK if it is for your own use.
Recommended treatment for hands is: 20 mins at 20mA.
Recommended treatment for feet is: 30 minutes at 25mA.
Machines are highly pricy to purchase.

Botulinum Toxin

Botox.
Blocks chemical recepters at the end of the nerves.
Licensed in UK for underarm hyperhidrosis.
Only done in a small number of NHS hospitals, mostly private treatment.
Effects wear off after 3-6 months.
Multiple small injections into the underarm.

MiraDry

Electromagnetic energy delivered to underarm skin using a specially designed handheld device.
Sweat glands don’t grow back so is highly recommended by industry experts.
90% patients satisfied with odour and sweat reduction.
Only one or two procedures required.

Local Surgery

Removal or deliberate damage caused to sweat glands under local anaesthic to stop them from functioning.
Majority of these are only available privately, although there are some NHS hospitals who will do the procedure.

I will continue to research into ways to help us eternally sweaty-bettys and if I find anything more, I will update this post. Or write a new one depending on how much new information I find. I know this post has been a waffle, but I hope amongst it you have found that you’re not the only sweaty person, there are things to try and even if none of them work for any of us, we did our best.

x

Absenteeism.

Apologies for my lack of posting recently.My brain is beyond frazzled at the moment. I’m working between 30-55 hours a week (I know, go me!) and I’m also finishing off my college Access to Higher Education course at the same time. I’ve got five assignments left to do before June 7th and I’m working my tush off to make sure they are done to the highest standard. I’m determined to better myself and my future regardless of my disabling chronic illnesses. I don’t want to be defined by them. I don’t want to be Georgia with Fibro etc, I want to Georgia the nurse and I will be. Regardless of how long it may take me. When I was in school, I used to believe that I’d have my life worked out before the age of 25. I imagined I’d be qualified in something I loved doing, married or near marrying and maybe have a child. But life has thrown me a lot of curve balls since then & it hasn’t gone that way. ButI’m so glad it hasn’t! I now know exactly what I want to do, I know where I want to specialise, I know why I want to do this line of work, I know what I have to do to achieve it & I have the strength, determination and passion to get me there. I couldn’t tell you how far off marriage is for me, but I know I’ve found the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. No amount of time with him will ever be enough, even when he’s driving me bloody insane & I tell him I want to poke his eyes out. I don’t have a child right now, but that does enable me to go to university at 26, chase my dreams and better my career path to better support my family in the future. It also enables Matthew & I to indulge in long ass lie ins after long weeks at work, to have holidays at adults only resorts where we can lie by the pool reading without fear of a child-induced tsunami erupting from the pool, to drink copious amounts of alcohol and shout at the boxing, to go on day trips that don’t require military planning and to be completely selfish over one another’s company. For now, we are happy just to wipe our own arses and nobody else’s. (Apart from me who chose a career doing that 🙄). Please bear with me where lack of posts are concerned, I will come back to waffling on an almost daily basis once I have time that isn’t consumed by working, studying and sleeping.😘

Inexplicably tired.

Week one of trying to be a normal human being is over and week two has begun.

I have no idea how I managed to survive my first week back at work. I was exhausted and my pain levels were going through the roof.

Wednesday evening I had to have help from Matthew to get into my pyjamas, he had to cook dinner and then help me into bed. I was so exhausted that even breathing felt difficult and painful. It was the first night in a long time that I went out like a light and didn’t wake up once throughout the night.

I rested at every possible opportunity and stayed on top of my pain medication and somehow I’ve made it into week two. Proud.

It’s not easy living with an invisible chronic illness and working in Healthcare but I like to think that I can succeed. I am refusing to let myself get burnt out this time and making plenty of time for self care.

Wish me luck x

Pain can be useful…

I don’t mean practically. Pain is never useful for the practical parts of our lives, especially not when DWP class you as not disabled enough to qualify for PIP.

I mean spiritually, psychologically and mentally.

Being in pain day in, day out can really take its toll on you but continuing to wake up, get up and face each new day shows courage.

Pain reminds you you’re alive & that’s more than some people get when each new day begins.

Pain reminds you that your body can move, even if it’s agony to do so.

Pain reminds you that you can feel, even if those feelings aren’t always pleasant.

Someday, when a cure or a working pain killer is found and we no longer have to endure pain every single day during every single activity, we’ll look back and wonder how we ever coped beforehand.

We cope because we are strong, because we are brave, because we are courageous, because we are fighters, because we want to believe it won’t be forever.

We cope because we’re badasses and it’s okay to be a badass.

It’s okay to have days where you lose all hope, where you cry all day, where you build a duvet fort and eat your body weight in carbs.

But remember, this pain will make you stronger, braver, more courageous and even more of a badass than you already are.

Keep smiling.

Keep fighting.

Keep doing you.

You got this.

Today is my first day back at work after six months of being deemed ‘unfit’ by my doctor.

Today is the day that I give my broken body the middle finger and fight against being confined to my home.

Today I am a warrior.

Tonight I will be exhausted, in pain and a little overwhelmed but I will be proud.

Even if all you manage to do today is make it from your bed to the bathroom or the sofa, be proud.

Progress means you aren’t giving up.

Progress means moving forward, even if it isn’t far.

As long as in your heart you know that today you tried to be brave, you tried to smile, you tried to stay awake, you tried to fight the pain, you tried to be kind – know you’ve done enough.

You woke up. You showed up for this day and that is enough. You continue to fight.

I believe in you all. I believe in your struggle. I believe in your chronic illness. I believe you have the strength. I believe.

It’s day like these that I live for.

Two of our closest friends with their fur babies, spending time together at the beach laughing and joking before returning to our home for a home cooked meal.

Honestly feel so lucky to be blessed with such understanding friends who make me belly laugh until it hurts.

❤️

My Mums a babe.

She sent this to me to make sure I’m thinking positively about myself. I think we should remind ourselves of these things every single day.

We are strong. We are brave. We are trying.

Dreams do come true when you work hard to make them a reality.

This arrived in the post last week and I have to say, I did a little jump for joy and a victory dance.

I have worked so hard since getting into college on an Access to Higher Education: Nursing and Healthcare Professions diploma and this booklet gave me the realisation that all my hard work is paying off.

I may have been signed off work since October 2017, but in the time I’ve been at home on multiple pain killers, I’ve been slogging away on my assignments to get the best grades I can.

This is my reward. A conditional offer to study Adult Nursing at both University of Surrey and University of Southampton. Both universities are renowned for their excellence and they’re both considered to be top universities to study Nursing at.

AND THEY BOTH WANT ME. Eek.