Growing Deeper Roots: My Story of Invisible Illness

My last day of PT was Wednesday. Kate and Hannah drove me since my mom has returned to work. I had a really good session (especially compared to my last, when I fainted) and I spent the entire time talking with Maddie, the assistant, and Kevin, the owner. We talked about the ways I can continue working towards progress at school and they congratulated me on the progress I've made in PT. When I left the hospital, I was barely walking and staying upright on my own. It took us a while to find Kevin and McLaughlin Physical Therapy but when we did I started seeing some improvement. My improvement is most apparent in the analysis of my tachycardia. My resting HR is falling and my flares of tachycardia are becoming much less extreme. After the session and my "graduation," I got a t-shirt. It's pretty awesome. Then, Hannah and Kate drove me home and fed me chocolate covered bananas, as real friends often do. 

If you have ever been in the hospital or a rehab center or suffered from chronic illness, you are probably familiar with frustration.  When you spend four months looking for answers from a dozen doctors in half a dozen different specialities but are still left empty handed, you get frustrated.  When you can't find the words to describe how you are feeling physically, mentally or emotionally and you feel completely misunderstood by your friends, family, and doctors, you get frustrated. When you wake up to your team of doctors saying that you haven't made enough progress to be discharged to rehab, you get frustrated.  You feel frustrated and angry and helpless with all of your doctors every time you get bad news.  You feel frustrated with PT and OT for not giving you more opportunities to make progress. You feel frustrated with PMR for not letting you prove to them that you are making progress.  But most of all, you feel frustrated with your weak, bro...