Hey everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself.
I am 19, female, and am facing new challenges which I like to say are creating a new journey. I try and stay positive, using this phrase, rather than saying these challenges stop me from doing what I hope to do. I always believe that no matter the path someone is on, there's loads of obstacles and fun along the way even if it takes time to get there.
But anyway, I get distracted easily! But these challenges are health related. I started early teens with pain in my legs, dismissed as growing pains, and now at late teens, it's only gotten worse. Last year I had extremely painful flare ups, where I would scream in pain. And I have a high pain tolerance, used to be able to walk on cramps and sprained ankles. So, these flares caused too much pain. This year (September), I was diagnosed with Hypermobility and Fibromyalgia. We thought that made sense, and fits my symptoms, but some things were still unexplained.
Two months later, November, I suddenly became really unwell, requiring two hospital admissions within a week. Now, I'm not one to go to hospital unless it's serious, and my symptoms were out of character. I was tachycardic (fast heart rate), dizzy, cold, and my vision and speech had gone weird. Both times, the symptoms were similar. I was then diagnosed with POTS, and placed on beta-blockers, which had thankfully helped.
However now, my health is getting worse and worse, requiring me to limit work, cancel jobs, which is difficult because I'm self-employed, so my business is quite frankly unreliable. I spend most of my time in bed, or on the sofa, since I'm too exhausted to do anything physically. Yet mentally, I am alive and need stimulation but that's difficult when I'm struggling to move. It's almost like a battle between mind and body.
My goal was to become a SEN teaching assistant, to buy a house, and to adopt kids. I'm now a qualified SEN TA, however unable to fulfill this currently. But, I hope my two other plans can come true, and I will fight for them.
I know I am undiagnosed with my health, a few more possible conditions evident, but I do have professional support for this. But it's difficult for people to take it seriously and not blame it on being "female", or "too young", or "menstruation", or even "stress". And being autistic, I do struggle at times but now I feel health has just taken over, making everything worse. For example, I am now extremely sensitive to lights and noise. Before? Not too much. But now, it's too intense to the point I struggle to do anything but sit in an empty dark place.
So, I'll stop now! That's a lot to read but if you managed then that's impressive because I certainly couldn't. But just wanted to introduce myself. I wish you all the best!
