The Medical Dorm

           I was born with a heart defect, actually multiple heart defects. It was so rare, what else could be wrong, I already got my misfortune with that diagnosis.   That didn’t stop anything though, why cant life just be a little bit more fair. I volunteer and try to help as many people as I can, I don’t deserve to have my life controlled by illness.             With the diagnosis of Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome I lost the dream of ever having biological kids, and gained the reality of one day needing a heart transplant. With the diagnosis of Ehlers Danlos I have to face that fact that one day I might be in a wheelchair, and gained the ability to dislocate my thumb by doing something as mundane as opening a microwave. With the diagnosis of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia syndrome I lost by right to be a nurse, and gained the ability to get dizzy and faint when standing up. With my diagn...

No one goes out like this--certainly not us We have to admit that one of our professors gave the idea for this week’s post.   Let’s be honest here, no one walks around holding giant signs with their conditions listed.   Your diagnosis is not your label.   The question is why do some people believe that it is.   The answers to that are endless, but basically some people are just awful.   Why must our diagnosis be the only thing that we are?   Why can’t we be known as something that is positive?   We are both daughters, sisters, students and so much more than our diagnoses.   We love watching random movies and TV shows.   We love to relax and go out with friends.   Though we might not be able to do absolutely everything, we still try.   There are days where we just need to take a break, and others where we can act fairly normal.   We do not go out where we go and start giving out our diagnoses.   If necessary, or if...

I don’t know about you, but we certainly have noticed quite a few books / movies that are about individuals with some sort of illness.  Now, if you look at these books / movies closer there is something pretty obvious about them.  They are pretty much all romances, and let’s just say the two of our life experiences do not match up (at all).  Today we decided to examine a little deeper how little our lives relate to these stories that are beloved by many.  We aren’t saying don’t read these books, we are just saying from the point of view of someone with a chronic illness, there is not a lot of things in common.   Chronic Illnesses aren’t glamorous: Chronic illness is more than a label.  It is something that takes over your life, and the lives of everyone around you.  It is days of feeling too sick to get out of bed.  Days of taking a crazy amount of medications, and some including some not so fun side effects.  There are countless a...