a small glimpse into my story
My name is Kat. From a young age, I was diagnosed with one thing after another. Unfortunately, these diagnoses did not explain all my symptoms, leaving most of my health issues undiagnosed. This situation led to abuse through the school and medical systems for most of my life.
As a result, I suffered in silence without the necessary accommodations or medical care for years. I was constantly treated as if my medical conditions were behavioral issues. By the time I reached high school, I was sent to a separate day camp for kids with behavioral issues because I spent most of my time in the bathroom due to a bladder condition.
This place was merely a holding cell for kids with mental health issues, and it severely affected my education. It wasn’t equipped to teach multiple children; all of us were at different grade levels, learning eight different subjects. I had to endure meetings where they set goals for me to spend less time in the bathroom and make fewer trips—goals I was incapable of achieving. I was constantly told my pain wasn’t real and was given a bathroom timer aimed at embarrassing me. I was verbally abused and punished by the staff.
Moreover, I was robbed of a proper education. After years of mistreatment and feeling hopeless, I attempted suicide. Thankfully, after three weeks in the ICU, I survived. I was later medically homebound due to my anxiety and depression from the mistreatment at school.
After graduation, I took my health into my own hands and was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis at 19, a condition I had had since I was 5.
Two years later, I found out about my two rare genetic conditions, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Dyskeratosis Congenita. They explained all my other symptoms and connected the dots to all my previous diagnoses. I was later diagnosed with autism, which explained my years of sensory and communication issues. Getting diagnosed with all my medical conditions felt like slowly gaining pieces to a puzzle I didn’t know I was trying to put together. I still feel guilty for the symptoms my interstitial cystitis and other conditions cause me, but my diagnosis allowed me to finally learn how to love myself and give myself grace.
I’m excited to say I am now a proud disabled woman who documents my journey online and provides support for others who are undiagnosed. I might still be working through all the ableism I endured growing up, but I survived something I was afraid I wouldn’t, and for that, I couldn’t be prouder of myself. If you get anything out of my story, remember that everyone has been undiagnosed at one point or another.
Don’t judge others, and never forget: you know your body better than anyone else, so please listen to it.
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills as well as with the layout on your
weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself?
Either way keep up the excellent quality writing,
it is rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays.
Thank you so much! I am still in the process of setting up my site, so while it’s live, I have not officially launched yet. but I got my theme from adore themes. https://adorethemes.com/downloads/lovely-blog-pro/
That link will take you to the pro version I have now. There is a free version I used for a while under the same name , but if you’re going to use them, I suggest upgrading sooner rather than later. i found that many things I had done on the free version didn’t get transferred over, and I’m having to redo a lot of stuff unfortunately. with that said it really has simplified a lot and well worth the lifetime price in my opinion. please note i’m not affiliated with them, just a standard customer. thank you for taking the time to comment, i really appreciate it. <3
First off I would like to say terrific blog! I had a quick question in which I’d like to
ask if you do not mind. I was interested to know how you center yourself and
clear your head prior to writing. I have had trouble clearing my thoughts
in getting my thoughts out. I do take pleasure in writing but it just seems like the first 10 to 15 minutes
tend to be wasted just trying to figure out how to begin. Any recommendations or tips?
Appreciate it!
Thank you so much! I can’t wait until it’s fully up and running. I’m still in what I like to call a soft launch phase. I’ve been working behind the scenes to prepare for the full launch. I’m excited for when everything is finally ready, and I hope to continue seeing you here. In the meantime, my Instagram is where I’m most active. Feel free to send me a message there and tell me you’re from my blog.
And that’s a great question. I’ll be honest—I don’t consider myself a writer, at least not yet, so I might not be the best person to ask. I’ve never been able to clear my head, but it being loud and messy has become my best friend, at least when I’m writing. I just write and see where it goes, and then it’s kind of like a puzzle: putting together what I liked and removing what I didn’t like. I’m not sure if it’s the best way to go about writing efficiently, but it works for me and helps with my brain fog. Sometimes, something important pops into my mind, and I’ll stop what I’m writing to write that part down so I don’t forget. This habit has shaped my writing style, especially in terms of planning.
For this post, I used a timeline I made before writing. I wanted to make the timeline accurate and organize my thoughts before I started writing because otherwise, it never makes sense, especially with this subject. That really helped me plan what I was going to talk about. I also had to consider that I would go into more detail in future posts, so I approached it as an introduction, which helped me condense it significantly. It also helped me organize my thoughts since pinpointing when something specific happened can be very hard due to trauma and my conditions.
I would recommend trying writing exercises where you set a timer for 15 minutes and just brain dump everything. Do it in a way that you have no rules; you can write however you want, so don’t worry about how it looks. It’s just to see what’s swimming around in there, and then you can go from there to find a good order. Remember, it’s fine to start the beginning after you’ve found the middle or the end. I hope that’s helpful. Thanks for the comment!