You asked, so I’m delivering – the most common post request in the 2016 survey was for more of my personal life, so today I’m going to talk a bit more about my life, my year so far, and my goals and plans for the rest of 2016. I generally have no problem with talking about my personal life, but what you guys usually get is the medical side (with a dash of writing). Most of this is because my life is rather boring; the most excitement I get is when I end up in the ER. But nonetheless, I am going to make an effort to open up a bit more about the things that you guys don’t get usually, although (as I’m sure you understand) I will not be opening up completely. I get to keep my personal life personal if I want!
January – January definitely wasn’t a bad month! I had the majority of the month off because my semester started right before MLK day. I focused on writing more of TLM, and while I didn’t hit my goal, I still wrote a lot more than I had in previous months. For some reason, I also thought it would be a good idea to try and go off of my steroids, but that backfired because it turns out that the steroids (even a low dose!) are the only thing keeping my costochondritis under control. This stupid attempt actually contributed to my struggle to write TLM because with the increased pain, I wasn’t able to write as much as I wanted.
February – February started okay; classes were good and everything was okay. And then my October infusion ran out, I got horribly sick, which turned into a sinus infection, and my asthma came back much worse than it was in high school. As a result, I couldn’t start my new medication on time and I also missed school and work. But an exciting thing was that I got on the Huffington Post!
March – Things were okay in March. I started the new medication, and I went to visit D.C.! I saw some close friends and then went to the Arthritis Foundation’s Advocacy Summit. That included meeting with the offices of my senators and representatives, which was a wonderful experience. I went last year, and I’m so glad that I got to go this year, too. It wasn’t a great month, but it wasn’t an awful one, either.
April – Compared to April, March was amazing. April was awful. I had 2 ER trips for severe abdominal pain (which we’re still trying to figure out), and it turned out that there was a ton of mold in my bedroom. We’re talking about 40 inches of mold on 1 wall, more other 2 other walls, and in the carpet. That’s awful for the average person, but my health makes it much worse for me. My rheumatoid arthritis makes everything more difficult for me – including trying to be okay in the face of mold exposure – but I’m also allergic to mold. Basically, it was bad news bears. I spent just as much time in April dealing with ER trips and healing from them as I did being okay. Because I had 2 trips and they were right before finals, I ended up getting extensions in both of my classes.
May – May was so much better than April. My sister graduated from college, so we had our entire family in town, which is always fun (and interesting). If you’ve ever met me, you know that I have a tendency to talk loudly. Having my dad’s family in town showed where I got that; Mitchells are LOUD (apologies to my neighbors). On the other side of the month, by the end of Memorial Day Weekend, I had finished everything for 1 of my 2 classes. That felt great!
June – Unfortunately, June wasn’t all that great. Yes, I had my birthday at the beginning of the month. (Here was a recap of what was going on through the end of May and beginning of June). But I also had 2 more abdominal pain episodes that were awful. Of course, I als0 had my infusion, which was great because that’s one step closer to feeling better, but as much as I love feeling better, getting pumped with chemicals isn’t fun.
What I’m looking forward to in the rest of 2016 – Hopefully finishing the first draft of TLM (2nd novel, for any of you wondering), getting my second infusion and therefore feeling better, going to Nashville at the end of August, taking my readings and research course on medieval drama, the fall in general (my favorite time of year!), the Walk To Cure Arthritis, everything from October – the end of the 2016, doing more advocacy work, having an answer for what’s causing the abdominal pain episodes, and everything that’s possible once I feel okay again!
My goals for the rest of 2016 – 1) Finish the first draft of TLM 2) Complete the semester without needing to take an incomplete or extension in either class 3) Stay out of the ER
By the way, I got this post idea from my list with 1 post for every week of 2016!
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
I did a similar blog post earlier this week & I’m so glad I’m not the only one! Congrats on the Huffington Post, that’s pretty awesome. 🙂 I’m going to read it right now!