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| Erin enjoying the sun last summer |
But regardless of her daily pain, she was able to complete her first term at UBC in the BEd program. Unfortunately, she has had to withdraw from school this month and her love for teaching and children is on hold.
With the weekly support of her Gp, massage therapist, naturopath, boyfriend and other practitioners she will be trying to get to a place where she can function somewhat and start to enjoy life as she defines it for herself. Spending her life in bed is not an option.
All of you can help Erin! First by understanding the complexity of the disease by informing yourself. Secondly, by supporting those women in your life who have endo or fibro by acknowledging their limitations and supporting their abilities and integrity as fabulous people. And this month you can help by recognizing Endo survivors.
Let's make this world a better place for my daughter and all the other young women out there who deserve more!
It has been a tough start to 2012. As most know from my blog I am a tough cookie, bring on the pain and I'll take it on like a trooper. I have never given up at any battle and leaving school is not something I am surrendering to that easily. Eight courses and a practicum is tough enough on a normal person, add three chronic pain diseases and it becomes an impossible trek up a steep mountain with obsticles, powerful rain and sheets of snow. I had no choice but to stop climbing that mountain, it was not safe for my health. Somewhere along that journey I seem to loose myself within school and the pain I fought daily that I barely recognize myself when I took a step back and left school. Getting lost in something you love is one thing but loosing who you are because you lost joy in basic life, social and family and what about that time you reserve for yourself? It became too much. I had given up all for school. Too many times had I been told "how are you going to be a teacher since your sick?" The weight of it all, resting on my shoulders was too much. Its so hard to look up when so much stuff is bringing you down. Well, I am still smiling and taking this in strides. I will not give up on what dreams I still have even if I may be sick and may never get better. Isn't true you look so much better when you smile? So, that's what I am going to do through all this. This is not the end, but the start of something else. I have to re define myself and find that part of me I lost. School will always be there and I hope that someday I will return and find steedy footing within it but as of now, I have to once again look at my health. When you have three chronic pain diseases everyday is a struggle. I struggle to get out of bed, to hold a coffee mug without spilling or dropping it and even the simple task of dressing yourself can exhaust you. I am not bitter about living this way, I'd rather live then be dead, so I keep trying. Keeping my head above water is the plan. Maybe I bit off too much to chew but one must always try and I had a dream and the drive. This month is a month in which we try and raise awareness about endometriosis and I hope all of you will do your part, wear yellow, share information with friends or sport a yellow ribbon. Too many are affected by this terrible disease and too many of us are not being loud enough to bring attention to it when it affects one in ten women. Please try and give a bit of your time this month to raising awareness. I know I don't want to live like this forever, but if it is in the cards I will make do. What can I do? When put in an impossible place or circumstance all one can do is dream big and believe that things can change, that one day the pain will be gone and maybe I will awake to a new world full of endless possibilities, all that I am free to partake in without carring around a disease that seems to single me out.
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