Persisting Pain

The festive season is a time that almost everyone looks forward to. However, when you have a chronic illness, the holidays can be a difficult time for many reasons. Everyone’s illnesses affect them differently, so here are a couple of the ways that my health can taint Christmas for me: As you may know from previous posts, I have a stomach condition called gastroparesis. This means that my stomach is partially paralysed and this can cause issues including sickness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and food intolerances. Almost every holiday is focused around food, and this can make it difficult for me. A lot of the time I cannot eat without throwing up everywhere and when I can eat I am limited to small amount of specific foods in the hopes that it doesn’t make me sick. I can also be sure that if I eat I will be plagued with abdominal pains for hours afterwards. As a big foodie, this causes me enough problems on a normal day; at the holidays, this is downright awful. All of my illne...

There’s a few things that most people with chronic illness learn after some time being ill – you will lose friends, maybe all of them; you will spend a lot of time stuck in the house; and you will get extremely lonely there. Staring at the same four walls of your bedroom or living room, no matter how many TV shows you have to binge-watch, will quickly become incredibly boring. A lot of my old hobbies have become unmanageable due to my health, and so I have tried everything – painting, bead-art, movies, TV, books (when I have the energy), blogging, games, embroidery, crafts, and so many other things. But even an introvert like me needs human company. I don’t have much family that I see – my mum, cousin, and boyfriend that I live with and the my dad and sisters who I see as much as possible. And I’ve lost most of my friends as a lot of teenagers – and people in general – don’t understand and, therefore, don’t have the patience for chronic illness. They would invite me out an...

Hi! My name is Alex and I am an up-and-coming UK travel and lifestyle blogger writing about my adventures and managing life with multiple chronic illnesses. I initially started my blog after watching videos of Claire Wineland’s speeches. She inspired me and reminded me that my life was more than my disabilities. I have been ill my entire life, and my health will continue to decline. Among other things, I have fibromyalgia, gastroparesis, myalgic encephalomyelitis, depression, and anxiety. These limit my everyday life and I am still learning how to cope with them and still achieve my goals. My first blog at https://persistingpain.blogspot.com is where I write about learning to manage my illnesses and about how I try and live as normal a life as possible despite my disabilities. I also started a blog at https://alexalfresco.blogspot.com where I document my travel experiences. I have always loved travel and would like to share my passion with others. I have one f...