The Perfect Fit

I'm about to talk about something that I don't really like to talk about, however, it's something that I can guarantee (100% Kara Guarantee, pinky promise. And I do take those seriously) every person who has had to be put on steroids (prednisone, solymederol, steriod packs, etc.) has dealt with.

Let's talk about weight.

Honestly, I don't know how much I weigh.
I haven't looked at a scale in I don't know how many years.

This isn't because I'm one of those self-conscious girls who can only have so many calories a day because I think I'm fat.

This is because I've been on steroids now for 6+ years and my weight fluctuates constantly depending on how many milligrams I'm taking due to the amount of  pain I'm in.

Could I lose some weight?
Yes.

Do I worry about this on a daily basis?
Heck no. I've got better things to worry about.

So I'm not going to look at my weight and freak out because I'm a little chubby. I'm a healthy (hahahahaha, that's funny) girl who stays around the same size and I'm totally ok with that.

I would love to lose some weight and I do every now and then, but I know it's going to come back the next time I flare.

I've been as small as a size 4 since my health got really bad in high school and as big as a size 12.

Right now, I'm an 8.

Yes, I just totally told the world that. But it goes along with the purpose of this post and I said that I would leak my secrets if it  pertained to the story at hand.

I love food. Who doesn't. But those of us who do have autoimmune diseases should be watching what we eat. If we do get overweight, it can be detrimental to our health in more ways than one. A few of my friends are gluten free and I've taken some steps in changing my diet to "Kara-style Gluten it up". I just really like bread and cheese though.

I'm working on it.

So those of you who do know what I'm talking about with the "one week you fit in your 6's then the next week you're a size larger", I'm right there with you.

I have a rough time dealing with upping my steroids to numb the pain or dealing with it so I can stay the same size.

At the end of the day though, I would rather walk and be fat and happy than be skinny and not be able to move a bone in my body.

You've got to find that perfect fit and I'm not talking about the size of your jeans here.
You've got to find that happy balance (strength, courage, bravery, smarts) within yourself, steroids included...or not...depending on how bad you're hurting today.

Don't get me wrong here, I still feel really uncomfortable with my body sometimes. I'm not saying that you'll ever get over that. Especially if you flare as much as I do.

I still have those "princess diaries" moments (don't judge me, it's one of my favorite movies) when sometimes you just look in the mirror and say to yourself, "this is as good as it's gonna get".




But, you're beautiful no matter how many milligrams you're on, what size you're wearing, or how much pain you're in.

What makes you beautiful is how strong you are when you're fighting this disease.

The moment you find that perfect fit is the moment that you will truly feel comfortable with your body.

*Disclaimer note: That last part ^ right there, I'm just really hoping is true lol! Hey now, I'm a 22 year old. I never said I figured it all out yet, just some of it :)

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

There are 3 main things that you need to get through life with an Autoimmune disease.
Those three things are: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust.

The first thing you need is Faith.

1. Faith in God (if you don't believe in God then substitute whatever you believe in here).
and
2. Faith in yourself (because yes, you do need to believe that you can fight and overcome this disease in order to get out of bed in the morning).

If you have faith, not only does it make things a lot easier, but it makes life worth living. If you don't believe in something, how do you get through the day? What's your purpose?

For me, I believe in God. I believe that he gave me this disease to use it to help others.
He gave this to me, because he believed that I was strong enough to handle it.

Do I believe that I'm strong enough? Not all the time, I have my bad days and my good days.
You can ask anyone who goes through this that there are days when you want to give up.
But you don't.
Wanna know why?
Because they have faith.

The second thing is Trust.

You need to trust your doctors, your family, and your friends.
You never know if you're going to wake up one morning and need their help getting dressed in the morning or driving you to class.

You need to trust that they are going to be there.
Because they will. They love you and they will do whatever they can to help.

If they don't, I'm here.

You have to trust that the doctors are making the right decision in the choice of medications that they want to try.
You also need to trust your family to tell you their opinions when you need to hear it, specifically when it comes to medications or whether or not they think the doctor you're seeing is a wacko when she walks into the room in what looks like a tutu and no makeup on.

Trust them. They'll be there to catch you when you fall.

Last but not least, you need a little Pixie Dust.

Ok, so it's not legit Pixie dust. If I had some of that wonderful stuff I would be flying around instead of casually limping from place to place.

Let's think of our medicine as pixie dust, it's magical and wonderful at the same time!
I know it's really not as exciting as I'm making it sound (unless you really really know me and have seen me on some of my really painful nights when I take the really good pixie dust), but you need those to walk and move just like you would hypothetically need pixie dust to fly.

So, it all works out in the end.

Just remember, all you need is a little Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust :)

Just say No

You've always been told growing up to just say "no" to drugs.

This post isn't about that. 

Although, do say "no" to drugs (unless it's prescribed drugs to help you walk, then go ahead and take those!)

I'm going to tell you something important about those with autoimmune diseases:

It takes us twice the amount of energy and strength that it takes you (a normal human being) to make it through the day. 

With that being said, it takes us twice the amount of time to recooperate from daily activites, or longer, depending on how much we exerted ourselves that day. 

It's important to understand that when we say "no" to something, it means that we don't have enough energy to do that something (unless that person just doesn't want to do it). 

With me, I like to make people happy. I like to see people smile, so if they ask me to do something, I'll do whatever I can possible to help them out or join them. 

But when I say "no", I mean it. Not because I don't want to hangout or help you, but it's because I have no more energy left to give. 

Those of you that are reading this and don't have an autoimmune disease, don't take this as a, "oh I need to stop asking them to help or to do things". 

No. Don't do that. Ask anyway, but if they say "no", then understand that it could possibly be because they are exhausted. 

Also, don't confuse this with them just being a lazy person. 

I'll be the first one to go put on my sweats and hoodie and lay on the couch. Half of that is because I like to relax. The other half of that is because I'm so worn out from the day.

So it's totally ok to say "no" to things if you're not feeling it. 

No one is gonna blame you.

No one is gonna be mad at you. 

And if they are, send them to me because they really have no right to get mad.

The way I like to see it is that we only have so much energy and we are gonna put that into the things that are most important to us. We have to choose what those important things are and some days, certain activites are more important than others.

Sometimes, if we know we have something big coming up or something stressful, we need to save our strength and energy for that. 

It's a game of chance every single day. 

You never know what you're gonna get, how you're gonna feel, or how far you can push yourself.

The secret to winning?

The day I figure that out, I'll let you know. 

I can tell you to:

Just keep you're head up 

and

Don't waste your strength and energy on people or things that don't provide a positive outcome for you. 

If you do those two things, you'll be just fine :)

Doctor Kara

I was talking to my friend the other day (Shout out to Elise!) and we were discussing our medications, IV's, and shots. Yes, this is "normal" talk for girls who go through this on a daily basis. She mentioned that I should discuss a certain topic on my new blog and I thought it would be a great idea!

Here's the topic:
There's a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to doctors, medications, parents, and what everyone thinks is best for you and what you should take to help you. But at the end of the day, you're the doctor and what you/your parents think is best is what should be done.

Yes, they are the professionals.
Yes, they have a doctorate in ____(enter your choice of specialization here)

But YOU are the one who has to live this life.
Not them.

YOU are the one who has to go through countless amounts of medicines and trials of different drugs, and getting your blood drawn to make sure they aren't killing you (that's not a road you wanna go down), and just pain in general.

Don't get me wrong, I trust their decision and 90% of the time, I follow it.

But if you're telling me to up my steroids when I just brought it down (steroids help with pain management, but make you gain tons of weight and can really be bad for your heart), I'm probably not going to listen to you. I'll take the pain instead.

Yes, I like to play doctor and boy have I gotten good at it.

They want you to try this drug and that drug or if something isn't working for you and they don't listen...ugh.

I'm a rare case. I'm allergic to EVERY drug out there, with the exception of the one I'm on. So with me it's kind of a hit and miss thing and normally, I'll push my limits for just about everything.

But when my liver tests come back horrible and we've stayed on this drug as long as my liver can take it, I've got to get off. I'm not going to see what happens if we switch meds and add this and take this away.
No. Not happening.
I'll be your guinea pig any day of the week, but when I've pushed my limits, I'm done. I would rather push through the pain that my body causes me than try and test which drug works and possibly kill my liver instead.

I have a losing deck of cards here, but which one is gonna hurt me less?

The other thing I like to do when I play doctor is like I said above, I like to push my limits. But this is in the sense of pushing my body limits. The doctors like to say, "just walk, try light exercise". Well, I like sports. I like contact sports to be exact. So I'm gonna be running, shooting basketball, throwing things, and giving it my 100%. It's what I do.
Will I hurt the next morning? Of course.
Do my doctors like when I do this? No, but I enjoy it and that's all that matters.
Will I regret this decision? Never.

Some of the best times in my life are when I'm giving it all I've got. I won't be able to move a muscle in my body the next day, but I lived, I had fun, and I won't ever regret doing that.

One day, I won't be able to walk, to move, to do the things I love. And if you have something like I do, you may not be able to do that as well.

So go have fun now. Go run a 5k mud run because you want to. If you feel like taking a risk, then do it! If you don't, especially if it comes to medicine, don't take it. Be your own doctor and look out for what's best for you. Find other options, other doctors, other medicines.

But most importantly,
Do what's best for you while you still can.

It all comes to an end. (Knock on Wood)

I decided to go home this weekend thinking that if I did maybe my flare-up would get better or go away and I could get some rest. 

That didn't happen.

So it started Friday when my brother came to meet me where I live so we could ride together home (he had already driven 2 hours, so it was only fair that I did). 

I don't know if you know this, but I quickly figured out that when having a flare-up, don't drive 2 hours. 

My body was exhausted by the time we reached our house.

Exhausted from doing what?! 

Driving. 

And not the traffic jam, horns beeping, in and out type driving. Just cruising 80 mph down the interstate. 

And I was exhausted. 

I went to bed at 7:30 that night...and every night that I was home.

Saturday I actually went out with the family but I think I cried about 15 times that day (silently to myself, of course) wanting to go home and just get in my pjs and crawl in bed.

Once again, I went to bed at 7:30.

Sunday was the day things started happening. And by happening, I mean I laid in bed all day long until my mother came to check on me. Only then did she realize that I was running a 102 fever and had been presenting flu symptoms for a week now.

We went to emergicare and needless to say, I was negative for the flu...but I had a double ear infection, a fever that wouldn't go away, and the WORST flare-up I've had in 2 years (the total running time for it being 2 weeks and a day).

Let me fill you in a little bit.

1. I can't get the flu shot because of the medications I'm on. But if you have an autoimmune disease or are new to the club, you need to get a shot. Because A: you will get the flu if you don't get one and B: you probably might get the flu if you do. Welcome to the crappy immune system club, meetings are once a month in the Emergency room of your local hospital! (see, that's a joke there because ER's have the most germs and we really don't have immune systems lol! <- yes, I just laughed at my own joke). 

2. If you are sick and want to "rest" don't go home. You won't rest. Stay where you currently live, lock your doors, and watch netflix all day. 

3. You're mother will always, no matter what take care of you....even if she swears on everyone's lives that you have the flu when you don't....she will still take care of you. 

4. Don't drive when you're sick. (this should be a no brainer, kinda like the cutting the lemon when your hands don't work...but I tend to learn the hard way)

and last but not least....

5. If you want to know what a really really bad flare-up feels like...it feels like the flu with a dash of the tin man-ness, and a splash of "literally not being able to lift yourself out of bed because you have bricks tied to your body". That's really the best description I can give you. The whole, "pain scale" and "is it throbbing pain or sharp pain" crap just doesn't cut it for me.

In the end, I got an antibiotic and my fever hasn't come back. My flare-up is on it's way out the door and on the next bus out of town (knock on wood). 

Good Riddance. 

You are strong

So if you've been reading, you know that I've been flaring the past few days. Well, yesterday was a first for me.

I went to class (grad school, mind you) with no makeup on and in sweats. 

I realized when I woke up that I wasn't going to be able to move much, but I decided to get in the shower and try anyway.

If I could have my own tv show, it would be hilarious! Have you ever seen an animal with no hands try and pick up something? That was me in the shower. 

Wait, it gets better.

I then make my way down the Stairs cursing the choice I made to live in a townhouse that has 2 floors and I think, "ok, I'll make my water bottle for the day and put some lemon in it". 

Knowing I can't move my hands, let me go pick up a knife and cut something.

I imagine that you already know what's about to happen....

Yes, I sliced my thumb open. But I didn't realize I had done it (I was concentrating on not thinking about the pain in my hands) until I saw all the blood all over the lemon that I had just purchased. By this point it was 8:30 in the morning and I was pissed. 

5 bandaids and 1 really bloody lemon later, I headed back up to my room to get my school stuff.

Why didn't I think to bring it down with me, I have no earthly idea. 

I'm a very stubborn person already, but when I flare that multiples by 10. So throughout the day, knowing that I look like crap and feel like it too, I wouldn't ask for help. I also was a smart alek and when people would ask if I didn't feel good, I would reply with a, "oh no, I'm totally going to workout after this"

Everyone could tell something was wrong. But this is normal to me and not to them. I had to remind myself of that. All of my friends here had never seen me this bad before. I'm always very conscious of things I say when I'm flaring, because I can lose my temper easily, that being said....I do my best to be Postive. So when they asked if I needed help or how I was, it was always a "thank you, but I got it" or "I'm alright, it'll be better soon". 

Between classes we had to walk to our other building and what normally takes a 10 minute walk took me 20. All of my friends walked the same pace as me. It's moments like that, when they don't have a clue what you're going through, when they can't imagine the pain you're in, but you have a smile on your face because they do something as simple as that...that makes everything worth it. Every bit of pain disappears because they help in ways that they don't realize they're helping and they make you smile. 

It's not the things they say or help you do. It's the way they make you laugh and smile that makes you realize that you are strong. 

You are unbelievably strong. 

The Flare-up adventures Pt. 2

So I wake up this morning before my alarm goes off (don't you just love when you can't get those extra 30 minutes of sleep) and I know before my feet even hit the floor that today is gonna be bad. Not the "oh poor me everything isn't going my way" bad, but the "I can't move a single bone in my body" bad. 

I thought that this weekend was the flare-up, turns out, she was just fashionably late. 

Here I am feeling like crap and not wanting to go to class. But instead of this being a normal flare (if you can really ever consider any flare "normal"), this flare is just my upper body. 

At this point, I'm thinking: "Ok, I can handle this. I've handled worse. I'll just take notes on my ipad and have my roomie drive today."

Things were going great minus the fever and chills that set in, along with me not being able to move my arms, and constantly feeling weak. Class was boring as ever and it was so hard for me to stay awake (another glorious side affect of the flare). It wasn't until walking to my second class that things really got weird. 

The upper half of my body stopped hurting and the lower half started. So now I can't bend my knees and my ankles are killing me. 

Wonderful. 

As the day progressed, so did the number of body parts that stopped being able to function correctly. 

Let's picture the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz if he was a girl and wore chucks and a doctor who shirt. 

Really, just one time I would like a heads up when this is gonna happen. 

Maybe a text like: YoBro, next tuesday around 9am you're gonna flare and it'll include your left wrist and right knee. 

No spontaneous flares with half of a body one part of the day and vice versa.

That would be nice. 

Oh, only in a dream world. 

Now I get to climb the stairs to my bedroom. I'm gonna have my roomie time me and maybe I can beat my record from last time of 2 minutes and 6 seconds. 

Ready....Set....Climb!

The Flare-up Adventures

The Adventure started Friday evening when I was taken suddenly into this wonderful world full of different universes with aliens from all over time and space. I was traveling with this man (really really hot man) in a bow tie. He called himself the doctor, not just any doctor and definitely not the kind of doctor I was used to. We traveled among the stars to the future light years and eons away. We saved a whole race of aliens and people who lived together! We then hopped back in the police box space ship and traveled back in time to save a pirate and his son from a siren. It was magical and wonderful all at the same time (shout out to Tsweezy).

I woke up Saturday morning with marks on my arms trying to comprehend what had happened the night before, but for some unknown reason I could only remember the silence.

My Saturday was less exciting. However, it was spent with my girls in New York! Hannah had her normal, "oh pay attention to me, everything is terrible, my parents don't support me" attitude. Marnie was trying to get over Charlie, but then realized she loved him and had this hilariously embarrassing idea to go sing Kanye at his work party (Spoilers! They did get back together, finally!). Jessa was MIA, but when is she ever really with us anyway. And poor Shoshanna, Ray was too old for her anyway, it was about time they broke up. I ended up crashing with them in the big apple and stayed Sunday with them too. They were quite entertaining when you get them in a club dancing to Icona Pop.

By the time I got home Sunday night, I barely made it in time to walk the red carpet at the Golden Globes. I was very impressed with my girl, JLaw and her wins of the night! Tina looked hotttt as ever and I was majorly unimpressed with Brooklyn 99's wins over my girl Lena. The night took a turn when the brilliant Emma Thompson bought us a round of drinks. She was telling jokes the whole night while casually leaving her clothes places she shouldn't!

I woke up the next morning lying next to Emma Watson and Ed Sheeran, not remembering a thing that happened.
HELLOOOO British Invasion!

I had one AMAZING Weekend.

If you think that any of this is even remotely close to the truth:
1. Go see a doctor
2. Don't, please don't tell anyone that you fell for that.

This is really how my weekend went...
I was having a flare-up so I stayed in bed all weekend and watched ALL of season 6 of doctor who and both seasons 1 and 2 of HBO's Girls.

This is why I'm single.

For those of you who don't have a family member or friend with this, or who are unfamiliar with these so called, "flare-ups", let me help you out.

A flare-up is a nice way to sum up a number of events that can range from someone's knee hurting to someone being unable to move at all. Most of the time (mine always does) it starts out with a fever then progressively moves on to put me in one, well not so nice mood. And it can last for as many days as it wants to last and it comes and goes whenever it pleases. It's basically a lot of pain experienced by a person with joint swelling and stiffness.

Stayed tuned for "The Flare-up Adventures, Pt. 2", Coming soon!

Sometimes It's OK to...

The following goes to all the girls out there (and boys too) who live a life full of stiffness, pain, and stress caused by certain autoimmune diseases. Some of the following can apply to those who don't have it! I like being fair :)

Sometimes it's ok to...

Spend all day in your bed because you're too tired and weak to do anything else.

Sometimes it's ok to...

Spend all weekend in your bed for the same reason as stated above.

Sometime's it's ok to...

Go a day without a shower because you've been in bed all day.

Sometimes it's ok to..

Go all week eating healthy because they said it would help the pain, only to blow it on Friday by eating half a pizza all by yourself.

Sometimes it's ok to...

Take a pain pill because you know it'll help, but you also know how embarrassingly funny you'll get.  

Sometimes it's ok to..

Curse at the weather for making you a cripple ole' grumpy lady who can't walk down the stairs.

Sometimes it's ok to...

Wear sweats to class, with no makeup on, and you're hair tied back.

Sometimes it's ok to..

get mad at yourself for feeling weak because you let the pain win this time

Sometimes it's ok to..

Say no when you don't feel like doing anything.

Sometimes it's ok to...

let yourself have a breakdown and cry just because you know you'll feel better.

It's ALWAYS ok to..

Ask for help from your friends, no matter how much you don't think you need it.

Boys, Babies, and Broken hearts

Now I know the title of the post is a little weird, but it goes with the story so just hang on and it'll make sense!

So I'm not the type of girl that's been in tons of relationships...actually I've only been in about 2 serious ones. This is not the story of a serious relationship though. This is a story of a "3 dates you're out" guy.

I was a senior in college at the time and I had just started talking to this guy. He was great and nice and I started to like him. The first date went great and we decided to go on a second one. Things were starting to look up and I was really falling for him...

Then I decided to YoBro him. I figured if I liked this guy enough he should know what he was getting into. He took it a lot better than I had expected him to take it...it was what came next that I was shocked about and immediately (I at least waited until he paid for my meal) ran for the door. He started asking questions like if I had thought about kids, when did I want them, were they going to be sick too, how would I take care of them, he said that he wanted kids, we (YES HE SAID WE) could adopt if we (ONCE AGAIN THE "WE") ever got married, and it went on and on and on.

As I was running (More like briskly walking) to my car he said that he hoped he hadn't scared me off by all the serious talk. And here I was thinking I was gonna scare him off, but nope. No way. That didn't happen. He said he liked me a lot, could see a future with me, and wanted to know if I wanted to date him officially.
He asked me to be his girlfriend after, let me say it again...AFTER he talked about having kids with me.
What?!

Here's where the broken heart comes into play.
I dumped him then and there.
Like, If you can dump a guy that you weren't dating...I did it.
I told him that I wasn't ready for a serious commitment and that I appreciated how he understood my medical conditions, but that I didn't think it was gonna work.

I learned a few things from that guy. I learned:
1. Not to YoBro a guy until you're sure he's not insane
2. That when babies are brought up anytime before you have dated him for a while...I'm talking like a loooonnnggg time...you should RUN.
3. Always, Always tell them you appreciate them for understanding your health conditions because if they happen to date a girl in the future that has them, you want that guy to respect her. Even if he was dumped in the parking lot of an olive garden by a girl who had a health issue he couldn't even pronounce.

Introducing Me!

So, now it's my time to YoBro you.

You've probably been thinking, "Oh I've been reading 2 posts about this weird crazy chick already and she mentioned something about autoimmune stuff but hasn't said anything about it, and when is she going to?!"

Well, to answer that question....now.

It all started when I was 6 years old and was complaining of pain in my ankles. My mom thought nothing of it, but after a few months they took my to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and it was there that I was Diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA).

You're probably thinking:
 1. What in the world is that?
and
2. I didn't know kids could get that, I thought it was just for old people?

To answer those questions...
1. Basically, it's where your cells attack themselves and it causes joint pain, swelling, and stiffness making it hard for kids to move.
2. It's actually the most common type of arthritis in kids and it ranges from them experiencing symptoms for a few months or for the rest of their lives. I experience the latter.

Back to the story now.

Everything was fine and dandy until I so wonderfully hit puberty. It was then that my body started to, well, for lack of better words...defeat itself. I had to quit most of the sports I played and it became so bad that I was out of school for a few months. When I was 14 they performed a bone marrow biopsy (they stuck a needle in my spine and took marrow out. As seen on Grey's Anatomy and House. I was sound asleep though!) and a lymphendectomy (they went in and got a lymph node, once again...I was asleep). My Blood counts were so out of whack and insane that they wanted to do these procedures to make sure I didn't have Cancer...which they thought at one point. After all of the results came back, they found that I was being treated for the wrong disease and that the medicine being used was slowly shutting my body down (you know that Enbrel commercial...yep that's the drug). I was then diagnosed with Psoriatic (affects my skin) Systemic (affects my organs) Juvenile Rheumatoid (affects my bones) Arthritis.

Now that I'm older (I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22) I can drop the Juvenile part, it makes it a tad bit easier to say when explaining it to people.

After years of finding meds, getting on them, finding I'm allergic to them, and then trying more....we finally found one that works (Yay!).

I now live a wonderful, drug filled life, with hopefully no more major health scares. A few emotional and irrelevant details have been left out of the story for your benefit. Yet, should they become important or relevant, I will share them.

Now that you've been YoBro'd, I hope I haven't freaked you out.

Imagine how the guys I've dated felt when I told them that story...

No, that's not why I'm single....well....maybe just a little....

:)

#YoBro

YoBro (Webster Definition Pending)

1. Used when dropping a massive amount of information on someone who is oblivious to what is really taking place.
         Ex. "YoBro, I have Psoriatic Systemic Rheumatoid Arthritis, I take a lot of meds, I sometimes stay in the hospital, and you know, it's not a big deal...but I know all the nurses by name."

2. Used when certain topics or situations go too far.
    Ex. "YoBro, Did you actually just joke about marrying me? We've literally known each other for 3 days."

3. Used when people are just plain stupid.
    Ex. "YoBro, if you wanna flood your apartment: don't do it at 1am, don't set the fire alarm off, and for the love of EVERYONE that lives here...don't flood my apartment too."

4. Used when breaking up with someone
    Ex. "YoBro, I can feel things coming to an end soon. Do you feel it as well, or is it one of those it's not you, it's me things?"

5. Used as a greeting
    Ex. "YoBro, How you doing today?"

Yes, all of those examples have been tested and used!

My friends and I came up with this new word. We refer to it from time to time as "YoBroing". Normally they ask me if I have "YoBro'd" a guy after a few dates to see if I told him about my health issues. Normally...the answer is no.

This is my way to make light of my situation. I don't like to be so serious when I talk about my health problems (there are rare occasions when I do though). I find that if I don't make a big deal, they won't be as freaked out about it.

And trust me, I have a few stories where people have been freaked out...stay tuned for more :)

The cliche, yet always expected introduction

I've been thinking a lot lately (which may or may not be a good thing) and I've come to the conclusion that I need to share my thoughts and feelings on living with a number of autoimmune diseases.

Scratch that.

*Overcoming a life with a number of autoimmune diseases.

Will this be some sappy feel good story that will tug at your heartstrings and change your life?
Probably not.

Will this be a depressing story that will make you feel horrible about yourself and make you want to go donate to the next charity you see?
Feel free to do so, but I don't see that as a likely outcome.

This is simply a compilation of awkward, funny, somewhat pathetic, and amusing stories of how one really weird girl (Yes, that would be me) has lived her whole life surviving and overcoming the obstacles put in her way when it comes to her health....and boys...and college...and just life in general.

Buckle your seat belts Ladies and Gents, it's gonna be one interesting adventure :)