Showing posts with label Pain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pain. Show all posts

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

M'anam presents 'Open Your Eyes' art exhibition

So I've been really quite on here, apologies! Hope you've been keeping up to date on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I've been busy with side projects and the all important health stuff -updates on the latter in a separate post in a couple of days.

One project that I'm very excited about, is an art piece that I've submitted for a local exhibition to be held in Dundalk museum this Friday (July 28th). The event is organised by M'anam, a community group who organise various platforms for those with know-how on multiple subjects, to showcase their work and knowledge. They hope to teach and promote different cultural practices, skills and hobbies. So far they have done so through a number of fun and informal talks in Dundalk. This is their very first art exhibition, and I'm honoured to be taking part alongside some wonderfully talented artists.

Saturday, 7 May 2016

The bad, the really bad, and the never ending


Physical pain is hard to talk about, almost as much as it is to live with.

I have had a horrible week. In general, I've had a very bad few months, but this week has been the worst -Although maybe I say that every week. I don't even know anymore.

The Baclofen I taken to control severe muscle spasms and tightness (which are usually quite good) are barely doing anything now.... It's a really strange sensation to explain. My body is like stone. Like something is grasping by whole body and squeezing.

A sharp, knife shoots through my shoulder blade. It cracks, pops, crunches. My neck twists. The only relief is by bending and pulling the shoulder, into place it seems. It's excruciating, but eventually after all the pulling and popping, it becomes numb. For a while.

It often travels from the shoulder, pouring down the arm. Becoming prominent around the joints -elbow, wrist and sometimes even fingers. My fingers have become deformed in the right hand the last few years, and I have no idea why. All I know is pain.

The hip pain is never really hip pain. It's hip pain, buttocks pain, lower back pain, thigh pain and knee pain. On days when I "over do it" it pops, then burns and swells. All these things are normal with hip pain, particularly the buttocks and the knee referral.

My flat feet cramp. My toes turn up in an effort to stabilise my body and not fall over. My legs are numb and unusable, for the most part.

I sleep all the time, yet I never

Wednesday, 27 April 2016

#IrishPainies

I vaguely mentioned previously, in my 5 year bucket list, that I wished to start an Irish support group for those of us who suffer from chronic pain.

I've never felt that I needed one-on-one counselling, although I have searched for local support systems -For any of my conditions. To no avail. And then of course, even something for general pain. Again, nothing near by. But sure I guess, everything is online these days, and I'm already a member of a couple of Facebook support networks for a few things. However, there's very few Irish based ones. I find these groups a tremendous crutch of support and

Friday, 4 March 2016

Christina Tournant's one year anniversary : That could have been any one of us





It's nearly 11pm here in Ireland, meaning it's just one hour away from being March 5th.

For many sufferers of dysautonomia, and probably for the chronically ill in general, March 5th is a sad day of remembrance. Remembering a young women, Christina Tournant, who took her own life on this day last year. Christina had fought her battles with POTS, hiding her anguish and despair from friends and family. She had to take a break from her education and put her life on hold as the physical illness took over. But no one knew the real pain inside this young woman.

On March 5th of last year, because of the chronic pain related to her dysautonomia, Christina Tournant took her own life. She jumped

Thursday, 28 January 2016

"I'm not qualified for this" -A tale of a fragmented and centralised health system




Chapter 1.

The Clicky Hip That The Doctor Missed 


Once upon a time, there was a girl, and this girl lived in a land of infrequent and inconsistent health care. As the girl grew, she slipped through the gaps -Being told treatment was too late, there were other issues at play, she was "wonky" and they weren't qualified to help... Just beyond this place, in various reaches of the further land, many children with similar issues, and many adults too, were receiving regular health care. Surgeries, rehab facilities and specialists galore. They lived quite a different life because of this... It was only at the age of 30 that the girl finally realised the truth. The truth being: National healthcare was a lie; her circumstances had resulted from her address.

I have always had hip dysplasia. Always. Doctors may have thought I was a dumb child, so referred to it as being "wonky", or being "slanted". Many hear of it and comment "Oh yeah, clicky hip I think it used to be called?" and generally follow that up with how it's no big deal, loads of babies get it... etc., etc., and this can be the case. When found at birth or shortly after, a harness is usually fitted. Annoying for the parents and child, but extremely vital for the child's correct growth. The issue is that the hip, usually either in the womb or at some stage during the birth, comes loose of it's socket. Generally treatment begins straight away -with a harness, regular check ups and x-rays and possibly surgery starting around 2 years of age, sometimes before, depending on the patient. Some don't need any surgery or just one surgery, others need several surgeries, throughout their life spam. These surgeries are to help the hip be more stable, to save the hip from replacement for as long as possible. This can include strengthening the joint and deepening the socket so the hip will sit better in place. Now, without this treatment -as in my case (as the doctors refused to even look at me until I was older and walking funny/ limping)- the body creates

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

The March into summer

It's the end of March. Not long until summer now, not long until the end of college, not long until little Kitty rests her weary bones (and muscles, and nervous system, har!).

Summer will see me take the time out I need to concentrate on health, maybe push for surgery, and see where I can go from there...

Marching on; one paw in front of the other!

...The solar eclipse of 2015 was an amazing experience for me. I remember the one that occurred when I was younger -I still have the newspaper clippings. Wish I had better photos, but it's the experience

Thursday, 19 March 2015

8 things you should know if your friend suffers from a chronic illness

There's loads of these types of lists to be found on the internet today, but thought I'd write my own -What I believe are 8 important notes to remember if you have a friend or family member suffering with a chronic illness -These vastly range from MS to Crohn's and everything in between (literally too many to mention. Both visible and 'invisible' illnesses)...


1. Not being a doctor is ok. Not being able to pronounce the condition your friend has is also ok. Not knowing anything about it, is not ok. 
Your friend or family member won't expect you to write a thesis on the subject, and you probably stumble over the letters trying to pronounce their illness and any medications they take for it. But if you are constantly asking what the issue is, and can't use Google, then just don't speak at all. Even those who are open and honest about their illness will get fed up hearing themselves say the same things -Ask once, ask new questions, and for the love of your friend's sanity, use Google.

Some won't want to discuss it -they may find it upsetting, they may partly be in denial. In this instance -Google, Google, Google! They might change their mind in the future so take an interest. Please use reputable sites though such as the Mayo Clinic.

It might be a big part of your friends life and who they are as a person. If you

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

100 days of happiness... Day 4 & day 5: Doggies & juicing

And so here's the happiness posts for Monday and today... This experiment is harder than I thought! Either that, or I'm a narky bitch! ...If so, doing this may be the cure for that...


Monday 26th May:
Doggies

When in doubt what to be happy over, animals are a good choice. On this day, my sleepy little fur-babies (aka dogs) were the things to make me happy. 

Emily

Louis (Lou-Lou bear) and Simon (Bicky)
























Tuesday 27th May:
Juicing

I've had a really bad day with hip pain -sore to lie down, sore to sit up, sore to stand and near impossible to walk. So it's been hard as feck to find something to be happy about. I would usually say 'bed' in this circumstance (har) -Although as I said, cannot get comfy lying down... so bed, you can kiss my ass ya shithead...

As yas all probably know by now, I adore my juicer. Bicky too. It's a deadly way to get in the extra vitamins when ya just can't eat any more. After researching it a bit, we've decided to do a total juice "detox" (for lack of a better word, I'll use the dumb, unscientific terminology) -that is, eat nothing, just get all our nutrients from vegetable and fruit juice.

It's a great way for obese people to lose weight, while resetting their taste buds -from what I've seen and read, after about a month of doing it, when the participants go back to eating, they actually crave vegetables and fruit -rather than their usual chips and cheese burger (chips=fries, for my US readers). This can only be a good thing. This is kind of what happened to me when I was 13 and half-ish and decided to stop eating meat -I eventually went from being afraid of certain foods, to loving them. The more you consume something, the more you actually do like it. That was my main reason for turning to a mostly vegetarian lifestyle -I had extreme food issues (like many people -nothing on the plate could