Seeing The Light 3: Basking in (Possible) Triumph!

I can’t believe almost a month has already gone by since I last posted! It’s been one of those fast-but-slow-if-I-think-about-it months with a lot of stuff happening.

After my wonderfully unsuccessful “pre-op(eration)” appointment at the hospital, I called my gyno with a new kind of desperation and was lucky enough to have an appointment with her the following week. I told her everything: my disappointment and anxieties over waiting another year, how I was told my nerve issues “could be MS”, something I completely forgot to say in my last post and just a very nonchalant way of a fucking medical professional to say you might have something as series as multiple-bloody-sclerosis. We went over my medications, stagnant weight loss, and the fun symptom changes that included my eyes. While she didn’t agree at all with the casual throwaway line of MS, she did affirm that the pill I was taking could be the cause of my eye pain and sensitivity.

Pre-Op, Post-Sad & Pre-Hope

Some of this was written before my appointment (italics) and I decided to leave it as is.

Well, it’s finally happening, today I’m off to my pre-operation appointment – not to get confused with getting the actual surgery, something I’m still waiting for for over a year!

Thinly-veiled passive aggression/sarcasm aside (I’m too tired to tell which one it is), I thought I’d tell you what happens at one of these appointments since I haven’t seen any of these kinds of posts around, since I’m not having surgery the same day.

Skincare Tips For Anyone with Low Energy and Executive Dysfunction

There are two things I’m well versed in: chronic fatigue and skincare.

I’m not a professional at all, but since working in a department store as your local beauty girl I’ve had an interest in skincare. Even more exciting, I’ve been suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome, AKA myalgic encephalomyelitis (or ME/CFS) since I was 18, something I feel like I’m an actual professional on!

While my chronic fatigue has fluctuated over the years, chronic illness and pain have entered the arena in the past few, complicating my life, so when someone says they suffer from any of these, I understand immediately.

To get to the point, if you have low energy, chronic pain and illness, low spoons, and/or executive dysfunction, I’m hoping to help you now. Some of these tips you might already do or know about, but I hope to bring you a bit more knowledge or give you an extra tip!

Seeing The Light 2: This Time, It’s Brighter

Hello fellow eye owners and welcome to another post about eyes, especially my eyes, more specifically my post – ophthalmologist visit, and its possible relation to my endometriosis.

Officially a Contributor for The Mighty!

I’m so excited to share this news (and post) with you!

Like I said in a previous post, I am now posting on The Mighty as well, especially more generalised info and less personal. But what I didn’t say is I am an official contributor!

You can see my post up right now. I’m still working on a post each for there as well as here however I’m gearing up for my ophthalmologist (I need to abbreviate that somehow) for tomorrow’s appointment which I’ve been told to prepare for it being around 1-1.5 hours long so…!

Anyway I hope you enjoy the little ditty I made for The Mighty and you’re all looking after yourselves out there!

Seeing The Light

Sorry to disappoint some of you but I’m not getting religious or philosophical, I’m talking about my stupid eyes again.

It has definitely been a week. Last week started with day after day of eye strain and a lot of wincing, which triggered a ton of headaches. It got to the point that I couldn’t get anything done, including writing, reading, watching anything, I wasn’t even able to make food. It got to the point I was crying in bed at night, fearing that it was going to be like this from now on, that maybe whatever is going on will get worse until I won’t be able to do anything I enjoy ever again. Maybe my whole life will change and I don’t know what I’d do then. It was a truly fun night!
However, the next day I did have a reprieve! While direct sunlight still made my eyes sore, I could open my blinds a bit and DO things, you know, like a person! This beautiful, sweet relief lasted approximately three days until it was my scheduled-but-never-comes-on-time period, where literally any form of light kicked off the domino effect of vampirism I’m now stuck in.
The blue light glasses I bought though are helping me at least type this post out, but there’s only so much a pair of glasses or even sunglasses can do, much like the paracetamol-ibuprofen combo I’ve been taking or even the codeine I take for goddamn endometriosis.

COVID

I’ve been planning two posts, one for here and one for The Mighty (one ironically about long COVID and chronic fatigue syndrome/me), however I just found out that my grandparents, my aunt and the family friend that my aunt and uncle live with all have COVID. My family have been so lucky in that this is the first time anyone has been affected, and adding to the luck, three of those people are fully vaccinated.

My grandpa has an unrelated health complication but it’s my aunt and grandma that are immunocompromised and have been having a rotten time, with my aunt having a fit and being conscious for it. However, again, because they were full vaxxed they’re able to be home (having an awful time) but able to slowly mend.

I’m so thankful and just.. I don’t know how to describe it, just happy that while this is not the most happiest post I could make, it’s not a tragic one. I’m thankful and happy my family trusted the science, listened to our words, remembered times throughout their lives where people around them couldn’t or wouldn’t get vaccinated for polio, for whooping cough, and saw their children being impacted by it and knew life in a new country was so good that they could get their kids protected so they could live long, happy lives. How even now people won’t get vaxxed to even help their children because they’re so entrenched in misinformation. But they’re okay.
I’m tired and optimistic, if anxious, but mostly I’m thankful and relieved.

PLEASE go get vaxxed if you haven’t yet, vaccinate your children when you can. Keep yourself safe, keep the people you love and adore safe.

I’m on The Mighty!

https://themighty.com/u/mythicalcreature/

I was going to wait until I had something actually published on it before sharing but since I’ve been having major internet troubles, I thought I’d do it now while I’m waiting for approval on a story.
So if you’re on The Mighty, come by and find me! I’ll be posting on there from time to time with articles that might be more beneficial or appropriate for a larger audience, like handy lists and the like, while keeping the more personal stuff here. Of course, I will still be posting here predominantly and will link to anything we put up there!

Also, happy Autism Awareness Month! I totally forgot about March being Endometriosis month, but hope to have some things up soon!

Can I read your FACE?

I like to think I’m pretty good at reading non-verbal cues. Not even by the typical-neurodivergent-person standards, but by typical standards too… I mean, as long as I don’t have to be part of the feedback loop; not only taking in the information but having to nod and smile and respond to others. Being just a casual observer and watching conversations or people by themselves from the outside when I’m not being noticed, I’m pretty alright at it. I actually got the highest in my uni class about personal intercommunication, which I recall finding very easy. Wow, two flexes in one sentence – lucky you!

Okay so if I’m in an interview I might not have the time to accurately see what the other person might think, but I’m… well.. okay. I might not be good at looking at photos of people and perceiving what emotion they’re trying to pull off – and yes I say trying because I’m CERTAIN the people pulling these faces and the apparent emotion is not the same. If you’re neurotypical and reading this (first off: hey, glad you’re here, I’m sure you thought this was a cryptid blog, I’m really sorry to disappoint you, secondly: please keep reading for a moment) please let me know if you fail the video above or any facial expression/emotion tests.
So yes, I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that this post is about facial expression recognition. I saw Paige’s video above in my recommendation and was really curious, so I grabbed a pen and a bit of paper and tried to play along and… I won’t repeat what I literally just said but, some of these did not appear to be whatever expression and emotion were trying to be conveyed!

Hey everyone I just wanted to say the next post is just postponed as I’m keeping an eye on the rain and flooding situation happening around us right now. Where we live is good right now but we’re expected to get more rain in the coming hours and days.

I hope you’re all staying safe and looking after yourselves out there!