I realized in my excitement of creating a blog that I had completely forgotten to introduce myself (the brain fog, I swear!). My name is Aaren and I'm a 20-something year old stuck in an 70-something year old body, or at least that's how it feels most days. I am simply a woman trying to live in a good and honest light, spreading love, knowledge, and awareness wherever it is i go. Recently I've been limited to spreading my light from the comfort of my bed due to the many chronic illness that plague my quality of life. I experience a lot of chronic pain, fatigue, dizziness and brain fog thanks to Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (I'll often refer to this as POTS), Vasovagal Syncope, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), and Fibromyalgia.
Before getting any diagnoses my symptoms over the years only hurt my credibility and made me seem unreliable. My nausea consumed me. It was random and it was strange. My brain fog made it impossible to drive most days, forcing me to find a new job outside the one I was currently passionate for, home health and hospice care. My heat intolerance made it so I could no longer take long relaxing baths, nor feel safe while showering each day. The fatigue that I experienced was nothing like anything I had felt before, but nobody seemed to understand why I would be "tired." It wasn't until I started experiencing constant and random pain that my doctors would consider any correlation. In fact, to get any sort of diagnosis I've had to be my own advocate. I had to push past physical therapists and doctors who both told me that I just had "one of those bodies" as well as severe anxiety. But I always felt it was more than that (Spoonies, you must trust your bodies!). In October of 2017 I woke up and was completely unable to stand without falling to the ground. My pulse would sky-rocket. I would sweat like no other. I was short of breath and incredibly dizzy. I was familiar with this feeling having been experiencing syncope (loss of consciousness) randomly for nearly ten years, but I've never been unable to stand until then.
These are the symptoms which shaped my life into what it is now. I do what I can, when I can, for myself, my supporters, and my family. I have loved being an advocate of what chronic and invisible illness looks like. I believe that knowledge is power and that the more awareness I spread, the more I'm helping those in similar situations. I've lost hobbies, friends, and family along the way but i'm completely confident in who I've become despite it all. I hope to learn more about my readers and look forward to sharing the "Tachy Tales" that has become my life.
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