Chronically Strong

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...

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 ...