Gastroparesis and Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

It's been so long since I wrote here yet it amazes me how many people still read my ramblings. When I first started writing I did it to find others like me and help along the way wherever I could. I really can't believe how much it has changed my life. I was never the brightest kid in school, nor the funniest, I hid away in groups and quite honestly people rarely remembered me at all. Probably because I never wanted to be noticed, didn't want to stand out too much. My teachers always said I had potential but I rarely reached it! Not because I was naughty… simply because I didn't have the courage to make myself heard. The last few years of living with a chronic illness has been a huge learning curve and I've had to do a lot of soul searching.  During that time Ive realised that all my life I felt like an "underachiever" for lack of a better word. Always feeling that I had let others down and in turn let myself down the most. Maybe it stems from my abse...

Probably the worst question in the world…or is it? It's probing and intrusive and commonly people don't really want to know unless the answer is positive. Those who choose to answer in a negative context will often be left wishing they had just said, "I'm ok thanks". Gradually over time you find yourself saying your fine when quite clearly you're not. Why is that so? What is it about discussing how we feel, that makes everyone so uncomfortable? I'm not apportioning blame on anyone, we all do it, even if we don't intend to. Is it a "british thing" or is it the same in every culture? I say this because my brother used to have a friend who's parents always asked him what his bowel habits were like as it was their culture to do so. Of course he found this pretty weird at first but clearly it is similar to asking "how do you feel" and is similarly intrusive to people unfamiliar with the culture. What is it that makes us not wa...

I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been so busy trying to be wonder woman I really haven't had the energy left for it. That sounds really exciting but in all honesty wearing a pair of spandex pants is probably the closest I'm ever going to get!… Not that I actually own any spandex either, just to be clear ; ) So what have I been doing? Well, following on from part 1,2,3,4,……blaughgghghgugh I decided not to write part 5! I have a half finished version of it but I don't intend to post it. So much has happened since then that I just don't want to look back. I could list the catastrophe's in bullet points for you but that's not really me and I won't let any of this define who I am as a person! It may not define who I am but it is always going to be a big part of my life, and for that reason I've had to re-build life around it rather than brush it under the carpet. I don't always get it right and there are so many days when I still w...