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I don’t know how to tell you what it feels like…

❤️‍🩹 To go from dancing carefree in the morning, to collapsed in a pile of exhaustion 5 hours later.

❤️‍🩹 To go from feeling like “I got this, I’m figuring out my health” to frustration at yet another medical curveball thrown my way.

❤️‍🩹 To go from pushing myself past the point of exhaustion due to fear of missing out, only to be told I “don’t look sick.”

❤️‍🩹 To go from looking like just another college student, to having my body poked, prodded, injected, examined, studied in multiple medical centers, what it feels like to be simultaneously “not sick enough” to get sympathy from non medical people, to “we’re surprised you’re so functional despite how bad your lab work looks!” From doctors.

❤️‍🩹 To go from 6 years of remission, which I thought would last forever, to hearing that my medical journey probably won’t be so linear after all.

❤️‍🩹 To sit in a therapist’s room and break down in tears when she validates what I’ve been through, for the first time giving me permission to grieve my health (11 years and 1 baby after my diagnosis).

I truly don’t know how to tell you…but I can try to SHOW you.

I hope these Invisible Illness photos help spread awareness, but please know these are just a tiny slice of how rheumatoid arthritis has affected my life. There’s no way to picture or communicate the majority of it. ❤️‍🩹🙌

I do my best to THRIVE with rheumatoid arthritis and to help others do the same, but please “do not mistake composure for ease,” to quote Star Trek.

It takes a LOT of effort and work to make the best of a difficult health situation, but it’s much more enjoyable when you have a supportive community … so grateful to my family, friends and Rheum to THRIVErs and THRIVE alumni!

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