Why I'm an advocate for the flu vaccine

In 2014 I contracted the flu. My immune was still down from chemotherapy, and I stupidly, completely forgot to get the flu vaccine. This was probably one of the biggest regrets of my life. You see what most people consider "the flu" is a mere cold. We are prone in Ireland to believe that the flu is quite common, we use the word nearly in every day life to mean we are feeling unwell. We think common colds, when bad, is the flu. Not everyone will even contract the flu in their entire life. Because of this, we have downgraded the virus in our society, the lines are blurred.

I was on a high finishing treatment for Hodgkins lymphoma, ready to get my life back on track with college and work. I wasn’t thinking about the flu, or the flu vaccine, or anything medical at all.

In 2014 I contracted the flu. I thought cancer was bad enough, I thought Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and my comorbid disabilities were bad enough ...but I was about to find out how unwell I could actually get. Weeks of delirious shaking and sweating and sleeping eventually subsided. Eventually I could stand up without falling over, eventually I could speak properly.

The complex story of loving someone with mental illness

Good Friday eve & happy birthday to my mum

Two important notes today...

It's Good Friday eve! If you are Irish, do not, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to do your shopping tonight. Super markets will be crazy... If you are mad enough, god speed. You brave soul.

Have yet to make plans for the occasion tomorrow myself, which I generally celebrate like a true atheist -By getting drunk... (although this is also how Catholics here celebrate it anyways! Tsk, tsk). We're thinking of a little excursion with the dogs too (not at the same time as the drinking alcohol, of course!).

Inset

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And secondly, happy birthday to my mum.

She is settling in well to her new house, doing it up and

Stop telling children they can be anything they want to be - They can't. And that's ok !

I'm a big believer in making your own life and not depending on "what will be, will be", wishing things/ magic woo or blaming others for your situation. In this life hard work, actually DOING gets you places -no matter what wishy-washy quotes on Facebook tell you.

You cannot be anything you want to be -Disney and your parents lied to you. That's ok though! If you could, life would be far too easy. Boring, even. Have faith in yourself, of course, but back it up with actual action. It may still all fail and fall apart, but you tried -You didn't wait for faith to screw things up instead. If it makes you feel better that "it wasn't meant to be", "God must have better plans for me", -Sure, go with that. But sometimes, can we not just admit that hey that's life, and sometimes life is shit? Can we be practical about it for a minute? 

When outcomes are out of your hands, such as with chronic illness and disease, then adapt. Change. You can control how you feel and you can control how you alter your life plans... as a kid I wanted to join the police. I kept this dream with me into my teenage years. I loved art and writing too but wanted to keep these as hobbies, rather than a career. I think it was at 17 I realised joining the police would never be possible -I could not run. I simply fell over my own legs when I tried to. I had known deep down, of course, that my health and abilities had been declining for years. But I had ignored it, pretended I didn't care much for running and sports rather than the truth that I was struggling to do them... That realisation devastated me, more than I actually even

Goodnight daddy x

On January 8th, 2015, my lovely father passed away suddenly. Goodnight big man x

Not how did he die, but how did he live?

Not what did he gain, but what did he give?

These are the units to measure the worth

of a man as a man, regardless of birth.

Not, what was his church, nor what was his creed?

But had he befriended those really in need?

Was he ever ready, with word of good cheer,

to bring back a smile, to banish a tear?

Not what did the sketch in the newspaper say,

but how many were sorry when he passed away. 

-Author unknown 

Dad, Claire, me and Cara (around 1985)