Living With Invisible Illness

So a lot of you won’t know that I have been living with an invisible illness, well it’s more a disability. 

A lot of people don’t understand the struggles we go through on a day to day basis with invisible illness, they presume we are fine and when all of a sudden we are unable to go a task the jump to the conclusions that we are making it up and nothing is wrong with us. 

For the past 3 years I have been suffering with problems with chronic fatigue and chronic pain, I have a pinched nerve in my back causing sciatica and the nerves in my arms are trapped, also known as Carpal Tunnel, which sounds familiar because the principal in mean girls has it! Now I understand what it is. 

These problems have affected my life more than anyone could know. The symptoms range from excruciating pain, numbness, poor grip function and the use of my left hand has been going down hill the most. 

In work and life, we put on a brave face and pretend everything is fine, but as soon as we clock out and get home, it’s straight to bed with a heat source to help the pain, pain killers and I have to wear an arm brace every night to help with the wrist pain. 

I had to stop going to the gym, I can’t lift the weights anymore and indoor cardio just isn’t for me. At home I struggle with workouts, I can’t do any exercises that involve putting pressure on my arms or that strain my back. 

Work is even harder, I push every inch of power I have into working hard, I move chairs, lift stacks of plates, move kegs, lift crates of glasses and carry flats full of food. 

After a short shift I need to go straight to bed, I can’t function anymore. 

On the bad days, I can’t do half of these tasks and struggle carrying a bar tray, but because I’ve hid my symptoms so well my colleagues don’t realise that I am actually struggling and presume I am just having a lazy shift. 

And due to the extra effort and strain I put on myself I end up exhausted all the time. 

I’ve written this post because it’s important that we remember everything is not what it seems from first glance, we all have our personal struggles and we should remember this before making a quick judgement about anyone. 

#chronicpainchronicfatigueinvisibleillness