Illness Archives

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10% Inspiration, 90% Application…

By Mum's the Word on November 20, 2012 in Blogging, Health

It’s a funny old thing, writing a blog. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it’s something that all bloggers go through but I seem to have three zones that I fall into; times when I have plenty to write about and blog often, times when I have no inspiration and blog posts are few and far between and my current zone, which is fairly new and unprecedented, where I have plenty of things to write about and simply not enough OOMPH to get on and do it.

I recently made a document on my phone to write blogging ideas on, possibly as a response to NaBloPoMo (thanks for not mentioning my immense failure on that front, by the way) as I often have ideas for posts which them fall out of my sieve-like skull only to never be remembered again. So I have a list of ideas on me at the moment, there’s about ten things on there, as well as review posts that I need to write, memes I could join in with, a veritable feast of inspiration in front of me but I just can’t seem to do any of it.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been ill on and off for the past month, between a viral, sinus type thingy that just won’t bugger off and my blood-vomiting incident, I’ve not been 100% for a while and I suspect my thyroid levels need testing too as I’m tired an unnatural amount recently.

The thing is, I love my blog. It’s probably the first time I’ve ever had an interest that I’ve invested this much time and effort into in my entire life, so having a page of ideas and no inclination to turn them into content is disconcerting. I want to write but my brain just isn’t letting me. Even this post right here, it’s at just over 300 words at this point and the effort I’m having to put in to actually finish and not just sigh a very loud “UUGHGHG” before clicking ‘Move to Trash’ is huge, it really is. I don’t know what’s the matter with me!

If anyone fancies guest posting for me, I’d love to hear from you. On a base, selfish level it’d be nice to keep the blog ticking over while my brain goes on holiday but I’d also love to host some new and fresh content and zhuzh things up a bit too! If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that most things go on Mum’s the Word and we love anything a bit subversive, so if you have a burning issue you want to shout about, let me know, even if you aren’t a blogger but just want a chance to blog. You never know, you might like it…*

*I don’t mean to sound quite so much like a drug dealer there…

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How A Natural Weight Loss Supplement Left Me Needing Medication for Life

By Mum's the Word on September 20, 2012 in All About ME!, Health, Weightloss.

Kelp

Apologies for the slightly sensationalist title, I felt like a Daily Fail reporter for a second there, but I needed to grab your attention. I know that for every post like this, there’ll be a post extolling the virtues of the very same product, or a person who thinks that we all worry too much and shouldn’t restrict ourselves, but I was asked to share this story by the lovely Lisa at The Mummy Whisperer as she thinks this might help others. She’s passionate about helping Mums to reach their weight goals through healthy living and this post totally backs up her ethos.

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Mental Health Awareness Week

By Mum's the Word on May 21, 2012 in Mental Health, Opinion, Personal

Today I learned through Jo Middleton’s blog Slummy Single Mummy that today is the start of Mental Health Awareness Week. We’re all aware that ‘mental health’ or mental health issues exist, so what does this really mean? Raising awareness for something that we all already know about?

But, how much do you really know, and how much of it is an assumption?

If I said to you that someone was a paranoid schizophrenic, you may assume that said person was dangerous to be around. Did you know that, actually, people with paranoid schizophrenia are actually extremely unlikely to be violent to either themselves or others?

If I told you that I knew a person with severe post-natal depression or even post-natal post traumatic stress disorder, you’d probably assume, through no fault of your own, that I was talking about a woman. Did you know that it’s estimated that up to 25% of new dads experience some form of PND or PTSD?

Did you know that, despite certain terms being bandied about and used as common language, true cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder actually only account for between 2-7% of the population, whilst people with bipolar are around 0.9% and 2.1% of the adult population?

For me, Mental Health Week is not about making us aware that metal health problems exist, it’s about educating ourselves, smashing the stigma and the stereotypes and trying harder to be compassionate to others. It’s so easy to label people, put them into a box and write them off as ‘mental’ or ‘mad’, but have you ever stopped to think what it’s like to live with these afflictions? NO-ONE would choose to live with these illnesses, people who seriously self-harm don’t do it for attention. I guarantee you, the people who self-harm because they are mentally compelled to are the ones you’d never know about, not the silly school girls comparing chicken scratches on their arms.

Take the time to educate yourselves and perhaps suicide rates, which are higher in the UK than anywhere else in the EU, would drop.

Or don’t. It’s up to you. Just know that no-one is immune to mental illness and knowing how to help someone you love could make all the difference.

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The Age My Mother Was Then.

By Mum's the Word on March 24, 2012 in Life, Personal, Relationships

I’ve had this post brewing in my head for a while now but I had to get my Mum’s permission to splash her private life around my little corner of the internet.

When my mother was 35, after a lifetime of gynecological problems, she was given a full hysterectomy. Uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, the lot. My sister was around five and I was about 13 and as far as I was concerned, my Mum had kids and she didn’t need her reproductive bits anymore so it was best to get them gone. She had endometriosis and her insides were so badly fused together that she had to have tissue removed from her bowel and spine and was told that this could mean, in a worst case scenario, she could also lose a portion of her bowel and have a colostomy bag, so when she came out of surgery and they’d managed to save her bowel, all we could feel was relief.

In the years since, I’ve heard my Mum talk about her grief at losing her ability to reproduce at such a young age, but it’s barely registered. Until yesterday, when I was sat on the bus on the way home from work. I’ve been having some gynae problems of my own, pain that the Doctors cannot explain and wouldn’t investigate (I was told a couple of years ago that they wouldn’t do a laparoscopy because I was too fat. My GP has since sent a strongly worded letter about how ridiculous this is).

I was sitting on the bus, going through the worst thoughts that were whizzing around my head, and it suddenly occurred to me how awful it must have been for my Mum. I’m almost 28, not quite the same age, but somewhere in the ballpark and the thought of having the decision to have more kids taken out of my hands in the next 7 years is devastating. Genuinely scary.

I rang my Mum last night, just to let her know that I finally get it. I know it’s a bit late for sympathy, but she said to me that if she could have she’d have carried on having kids until there was about six of us to look after. That’s what my Mum does, she looks after people, she’s even taking her Nursing degree at the moment. I wish I’d known at the time and could have been more sympathetic to her grief. I guess sometimes it takes a bit of walking a mile in someone else’s shoes to really get it.