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When Chronic Illness makes you a Full Glass Kind of Person

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In 2017, I felt unstoppable. That summer, I traveled to Germany and London, and a week after my return to the states, I flew to New York where I was a camp counselor for children with social and behavior challenges. Two months later, I returned to Ohio, took my GRE, went to my future job’s interview, and immediately moved back in to the dorms to begin my senior year of college. That fall, I took a heavy course load, was a mentor through a local elementary school, completed training for my new job, applied to grad schools, and worked 2 different jobs. I liked to think of myself as the energizer bunny back then- I just kept going, going, going. The thing with batteries is that no matter how long they last, they do eventually run out of charge. That happened to me, and things haven’t been the same since. I graduated from college a year early in spring of 2018 and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina for grad school at the end of that summer. Grad school is difficult, but fall 2018 pr...
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Being Thrown Back into your Old Life

A few weeks ago, I returned home to Ohio for my spring break. I've been back there a few times since I really start feeling sick on a regular basis. Yet, being there this time felt different. Maybe it was that my sister recently moved back home to my parent's house with her two children. My nephews are some of the best parts of my life hands down. At two-months and four years old, they both require quite the amount of attention. Being home during spring break was the first time I've been around them both constantly. On top of that, my family has always been a bit explosive in nature, making it a constant noisy and active environment to reenter myself into. Maybe it had something to do with crashing on my parent's couch every night with other people's schedules disrupting my energy-restoring slumber. All in all, these things led to an experience that made me realize how much my chronic illnesses have changed my life forever. I never thought being around those I lov...
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Welcome

Hey there. My name is Kelly. I am a twenty-two year old graduate student that moved to North Carolina this past fall in order to get my Master's in Public Health degree. I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and a undifferentiated connective tissue disease. My health is something that I constantly have to deal with. Grad school is made more difficult than it already is because of the pain and exhaustion I experience regularly. I’ve missed more days of work in the past 4 months than I have since I started my first job. I can’t sleep through the night, but even if I did sleep for 10 hours, I’ll still feel the need to take a nap 2 hours after waking up. Sometimes, I physically do not feel like my neck can hold my head up, especially without tremendous pain. Most days I have a migraine that’s so severe, I’m dizzy and nauseous. There’s not a day lately that my body does not ache, but those are the good days compared to the severe pain days. Living in North Carolina but being from ...
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