Growing Deeper Roots: My Story of Invisible Illness

It has been a beautiful week here in Chestertown! We have had gorgeous Fall weather all week and I'm loving it. But, when I said that I love Fall, I didn't mean that I like to fall. But I did. And I hurt myself. Wednesday night I had a bit of an issue. I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and I fainted/tripped and fell hard to the ground. My foot rolled and made a loud popping noise (according to my roommate, who was awaken by this noise and my fall). Then, it quickly swelled to look something like this: I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure that that bump isn't suppose to be there. Just a hunch.  So I iced it and went to the Health Center on campus in the morning. I don't remember how much I have talked about the Health Center at WAC but there are great! I usually see PA Beverly Clarke and she knows my whole situation as well as I do. She is a God-send and has made this whole process much easier. Anyway, she sent me to the hospital for X-Rays. At ...

As I mentioned a while back, I was in a senior thesis production this semester. It was a two character play called Running by Arlene Hutton. I took on the role because I needed to have a creative outlet while pushing through my last year at WAC. It was a tolling process and there were many times, like two weeks ago when I could barely stand without fainting, when I thought that I had made a horrible mistake when I committed to the show. I was terrified of fainting on stage or falling into a brain fog period while performing. I took a major gamble.  The crew worked to develop a plan for every possible situation that could arise. I had an understudy ready to take my place in the worst case scenario and the ushers and house managers were alerted to the possibility of a potential episode. I had a heart monitor on the whole time and the stage manager monitored my heart throughout the performance, with a threshold in mind for an indiction that I was symptomatic. We even had a "fainti...

Friends, Today was difficult. It was difficult because it was my first trial with the wheelchair on my school (WAC)'s campus. As lovely and aesthetically pleasing the 300 year old campus may be, it is not exactly wheelchair friendly. I had a lot of difficulty going up and down hills with uneven brick paths. I also found out how inconveniently placed all the elevators are in buildings.  But it was also difficult because it was the rude awakening to a hopeful dream of an easy return. It was the first day of a long, challenging semester ahead. I have been spoiled with the hardwood floors in my house and the even terrain I've been wheeling around all summer. Now, I have to adjust to the much more challenging environment I will be living in.  It was also my first day waking up at 6 am and having a constant stream of activity since I've gotten sick. I have been spoiled with low activity days and mental rest. Today, I remembered how tolling it can all be. By the time I got ...