Taking Back My Life

Hello everyone and welcome to wait is essentially my journal now! My name is Jessica, I am a 21 year old college student. I am a senior at South College and my major is health science plus the Physicians assistant track. I want to come on here to start sharing my story as I have found that it helps me cope when I actually talk about chronic illnesses and its effect on my life rather than just keep it in. I also want to bring awareness to chronic “invisible” illnesses as they affect millions of people around the world and a lot of surfers are being mistreated by the medical community as well as normal people without chronic illnesses. No one who has an illness experiences it the same way as another does not matter if it was rapid onset illness or chronic. So please keep that in mind if you comment on my posts. So let's get started on my story from the beginning and to where I am now.

I have been dealing with chronic illnesses for a couple of years now, though it feels like I've been dealing with it forever. I had always been a sick kid growing up, but the beginning of my freshman year of high school is where the growing list of chronic illnesses started. I was diagnosed with asthma at 15 years old, during the summer before my first year of high school while I was trying out for the jv volleyball team. After that, all throughout high school I had constant respiratory illnesses because I was an asthmatic. It caused me to get picked on a little when I did sports at school, I was always the girl who couldn’t breathe and that translated to me not being fit enough to do the sports I loved.

Now the fun really began my freshman year of college. I started to develop gastric issues on top of being diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. My sophomore year things progressed to the point I was in constant pain in my abdomen and pelvic region, with no real answer. Gastroenterologist brushed me off after all the testing came back negative and told me it was IBS. The gynecologist endometriosis and cysts but claimed that it was not causing my pain.

So I was pushed to see a rheumatologist in October 2019 and she has helped me more than anyone else. She actually believed in my pain and symptoms and actively tried to figure out what was wrong with me. After a lot of testing we found out that I have an Autoinflammatory disease and in May 2020 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. I am on my fourth medication to try and treat my symptoms as apparently they are very hard to control. In July 2020, my doctor told me that I had gained 55 pounds in four months. Which is honestly scary as that is a lot of weight in four months.

As I was gearing up to go through the pre-process to do a medical weight loss program by getting my hypothyroidism under control and getting checked for heart conditions. I got news that I have something wrong with my cardiovascular system. I feel as if my life is slipping away from my control. So I have decided that I'm not going to wait any longer to take back my life from these chronic illnesses. So come join me on my journey to become healthy for a chronically ill young woman. I will be posting once a week. I hope you all enjoy my posts and if you are struggling with chronic illnesses just know you are not alone.