I'M IMMUNOCOMPROMISED AND GOT COVID

    After only one week back at college for the spring semester, I tested positive for covid after dodging it for almost two years. This time last week was pretty scary. I learned I was a close contact last Saturday after simply watching a movie in my friend's dorm room. I didn't think much of it because throughout the night I wasn't physically close to this person at all. It wasn't until the following day I started to panic a little bit. So, I drove to CVS and picked up as many rapid tests as I could find, and took one right away. It was negative. A sigh of relief washed over me. However, about thirty minutes later, one of my closest friends tested positive and I got scared. I had been with this friend every day over that last week, so there was no way I avoided the virus this time. After finding out my friend tested positive and making sure they were okay, I sat at church praying that I didn't have covid. Yes, I knew I would probably be fine because I am fully vaccinated and boosted as well as constantly taking every precaution to protect myself, but there is still an unknown. I had to leave choir practice because I was on the verge of a panic attack. Luckily, another friend followed me out and attempted to calm me down. With his help, I started to come to terms with the fact that I could possibly have covid. 

    This may seem a bit dramatic to you, but this is the reality of being immunocompromised during a pandemic. Because of my endometriosis and asthma, my immune system and lungs are not that of a perfectly healthy person. I didn't know how my body was going to react to this new attack. The very first thing I did the following morning was go right to my school's testing center and got a PCR test. From then on, the rest of the day was a waiting game. I kept myself busy by doing my internship and mentally preparing myself for the news I didn't want to hear. Throughout the day, I started developing cold symptoms. This is not completely abnormal for me as I have bad allergies and more often than not have a stuffy nose and cough. However, this was not a good sign since I was a close contact with two different people in the span of twenty-four hours. I decided to attend my class on zoom that night because at this point, I had full-fledged symptoms and I was not feeling good. Around 9pm that night, my friends who had also tested in the morning started getting their negative test results back. I waited and waited but never received mine. I finally went to bed around 11pm with the gut feeling that I had tested positive. I woke up several times during the night and checked my phone hoping to see an email about testing negative, but that never came. Around 8am the next morning, I received the dreaded email: "the results for your covid-19 test have come back positive."

    I had little reaction at this point because 1) I was still half asleep and 2) I had prepped myself for this news. I just knew I needed to pack up my things and go home. I really wasn't feeling well at this point, so my brain wasn't working at top speed. I shoved a bunch of things into a bag and went to my car- double-masked the whole way. I knew I had to be forgetting something, but I went through the mental checklist of things most important to me: medicine and sound machine, check! Once I got in my car, I saw the negative rapid test I had taken the night before sitting there and mocking me. I hadn't eaten anything at this point and was still pretty tired, so I was attempting to hype myself up for the 1.5-hour drive home. Once I got some food in my system and my podcast playing, I was good to go. Luckily, I made it home with no problems. 

    When I arrived at my house, I was greeted with N95 masks and surgical gloves on the counter. I put a mask on and went straight down to my room where I've been ever since. At that point, I was having bad cold symptoms- stuffy nose, congestion, cough, dry throat- as well as trouble breathing and bad fatigue. I quickly took a shower while the rest of my family was at school and work, then immediately went to sleep. The first day was a little rough being by myself because I was so used to being super social with all my friends at school, but I quickly got into a routine of prioritizing myself and making sure I was doing everything I could to get better quickly. Those initial cold symptoms lasted about three days. Now, I am just experiencing a stuffy nose and fatigue. However, this morning I woke up with extreme dizziness and almost wet the bed not being able to stand up to walk to the bathroom. Actually, writing this blog is the first time I've sat up in bed all day because the dizziness is still very much there.     

    This whole week I have been so thankful that I am fully vaccinated and boosted. I've had quite of bit of trouble with my breathing even with all my vaccines, so I'm glad I didn't get covid before vaccines were available. While I have felt pretty sick all week, I am also so thankful that my symptoms haven't been worse since that was a very real possibility with me being immunocompromised. I am on the mend now and hoping to be back at school soon. Please be mindful of your immunocompromised loved ones at this time because even if you aren't scared about getting covid, they probably are. So let's be kind and respectful toward everyone and do what we can to make everyone safe!

Follow me on social media!

Instagram: @endoisnottheendblog

Twitter: @endoisnothend

Facebook: Endo Is Not the End 

 

End of Semester Update!

 I'm back everyone and I apologize for my absence this past semester! I think it has been a crazy time for most people, especially those who are back to school and work after being at home for so long. Since my college required COVID vaccines, masks indoors, and weekly tests, we were able to get mostly back to normal, which means I was very busy. I was taking some hard classes, I was a student leader in four different groups, and I continued my summer internship into the fall. I'm not complaining though, because like I've said before, I actually really enjoy being busy because it takes my mind off of my endometriosis and other health problems. Now that COVID is ramping up again with the new variant, I'm very happy to be safe at home, fully vaccinated, and boosted. 

A lot of exciting things happened for me this semester! The most exciting is that I was accepted into an internship program at my school that is going to allow me to intern full-time in Boston during the Spring semester for school credit rather than taking classes. I always wanted to do this internship program in Washington D.C. as I am a political science major, but when it came time to apply, I realized that I haven't had a normal year of college yet and I don't want to leave campus for a whole semester. The Boston program allows me to live on campus and still participate in all my extracurricular activities while getting to commute into Boston during the day and get that real-world experience. After I was accepted into that program, I had to apply for internships. This process takes a lot of time from searching to applying to interviewing. I was lucky enough to get a few offers and I accepted an internship that I'm super excited about and I think is going to give me the clarity I need moving forward with my career. 

I did work full-time during the summer, but that work was mostly remote. Commuting into a big city every day is going to be a whole new experience and I will definitely share my experience here will all of you. I am definitely nervous about how this internship is going to affect my endometriosis pain. Anxious nerves and stress often cause flare-ups of my pain. Over the summer if that happened, I could just take a quick break to lay in my bed, however, I won't be able to do that this time around. Although don't get me wrong, I am very happy and grateful that this experience will be in-person after experiencing the pandemic for almost two years. I'm sure a lot of you reading this have full-time and in-person jobs, so I'm very curious, how do you handle your pain? 

I have been lucky this semester that my endometriosis pain has been mostly manageable! I had a few flare-ups here and there, but they didn't last very long. The combination of medication and pelvic floor physical therapy has really worked for me and I'm so thankful! A lot of chronically ill people are strong proponents of either full-on western medicine or other less common routes. I think it's different for every person because each body is different, but I've experienced the best results when both methods are combined. What works the best for you? What I've still been struggling the most with is my tailbone pain. It's been about 1.5 years since it's started, but I'm happy to report it is getting better with the help of pelvic floor physical therapy! Hopefully being able to go to PT consistently over the break will be the push my tailbone needs to fully heal. 

I feel like I've been rambling a lot, so I'm going to end this post here. Now that I'm going to be on winter break for about a month, I'm going to be posting on here more and I've been posting on my Instagram pretty frequently (@endoisnottheendblog). I hope you all are happy and healthy and are enjoying the holiday season with loved ones!

 Follow me on social media!

Instagram: @endoisnottheendblog

Twitter: @endoisnothend

Facebook: Endo Is Not the End

ORGANIZATIONAL TIPS!

 This doesn't have much to do with chronic illness, but I want to share my organizational tips with you today. However, these methods help me to have everything prepared in case I'm having a bad pain day or I'm just plain tired (which is a lot of the time). Let's get started:

1. GET A TO DO LIST: This will literally save your life. I don't know how I got anything done before I had one. 
2. SET OUT EVERYTHING THE NIGHT BEFORE: I try to get my outfits set out and my backpack packed up the night before in case I need to take it slow in the morning.
3. USE A PLANNER: This will be your best friend if you're busy like me. Especially if you're a student, it's the best have all your assignments and activities in one place. 
4. PLAN OUT TIME IN THE DAY TO DO SELF CARE: For me, this means setting aside time to do all the activities from my pelvic floor physical therapy because I know they always help me feel better. It can be different for every person though!
5. CREATE FOLDERS IN YOUR EMAIL: This is something I didn't think I needed to do for the longest time, but once I did, it made finding old emails soooo much easier.
6. CREATE FOLDERS IN YOUR FILES: Similarly, this is so helpful and I have folders for literally the smallest things. When you're constantly turning in assignments, it's so helpful. 
7. ORGANIZE YOUR DESK: Having an organized workplace really does make you more productive and efficient.
8. HAVE A CLEAN ROOM: I know this sounds weird, but especially if you're working in the same place as you sleep, I find it so important to my productivity to have a clean room and made bed. If I don't, it just stresses me out and I'm not as focused on my work. 

I hope you found these tips helpful because they are really have gotten me through college!

Follow me on social media!

Instagram: @endoisnottheendblog

Twitter: @endoisnothend

Facebook: Endo Is Not the End

Back to School!

Some of you may have noticed that I took a month off from posting and that’s because the beginning of school has been crazy. The day I moved into school, I barely had any time to unpack because I had to go right to rehearsal for the choir I’m in and that pretty much lasted the rest of the day and the rest of the weekend. Does anyone else get super stressed when all their stuff is in boxes or not in its correct place? Well, I do and that’s what I was feeling like for several days before I had the chance to finally finish unpacking and decorating. Then it was time for classes to start. The good news is that I love all my classes! All my classes are within my major and minor, so I’m never bored and always learning something new. I don’t know if you know this about me, but I LOVE learning, it’s probably one of my favorite things which is why I love college so much; I get to learn about topics I’m actually interested in, unlike most of my classes high school. 

I mentioned in my previous post that I took on a lot this semester and I wasn’t sure how I was going to manage everything. Well, it’s been going pretty well so far! It was kind of a pain getting my schedule all worked out so I could be at every club meeting or rehearsal, but thankfully, I did it and this week everything was finalized. Last weekend, I had the honor of singing the National Anthem at the home opener football game at my college and it went so well! I’ve been singing the National Anthem at events ever since middle school, but I’ve never sung it for my college before, so I was a little nervous. But the President of my college said it was amazing (go me!!). 

I was able to get a single room this semester because of my medical accommodations and needing the privacy to do my pelvic floor physical therapy tasks, and that has been working out very well. While I miss having a roommate, I know I made the best decision for my health and that my body is definitely going to thank me for that this semester. With that said, I haven’t had any big flare-ups yet which I’m very happy about. Stress is one of my biggest triggers, so when I feel like I’m about to get overly stressed, I try to take a minute and relax so I don’t cause any other issues for myself. 

I was finally getting into the swing of things this week, then I got a cold. I was actually pretty scared at first that it was COVID, but I was tested and it's not thankfully. It's so weird how "normal" sickness hasn't really been a thing since the pandemic started because of masks and physical distancing, but as the world opens back up, I guess so does our susceptibility to other illnesses. Like this cold, you are always going to have things that interrupt your plans, but try to find the good in everything. Luckily this cold hit me over the weekend, so I'm going to rest up so I won't have to miss any classes next week.

If you are going back to school right now, I know it can be a very stressful time. My biggest piece of advice is to learn your triggers so you can try to avoid setting them off. Obviously, it’s not going to be perfect, but at least you are trying to do what’s best for your body. Remember, you can do this and endo is not the end!  

Follow me on social media!

Instagram: @endoisnottheendblog

Twitter: @endoisnothend

Facebook: Endo Is Not the End

How To Be a Good Advocate on Social Media (And Make Meaningful Connections to Your Audience)

 If there is one thing the world always needs more of, it's advocates. No matter the issue, meaningful work, and change simply don't get done without advocates and people pushing for that change to happen. About five years ago, with the persuasion of my family, I started this blog. It is the best thing that could have ever come out of being diagnosed with endometriosis because now I get to share my experience and knowledge with all of you! Some of you may want to do the same thing, but don't know how to start, which is why today I'm sharing tips on how to be a good advocate on social media while also making meaningful connections with your audience! 

1. Post either daily or as much as possible: The algorithms on social media are weird, but the more you post, the more it will spread your posts to a wider audience.
2. Use relevant hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to spread your posts to a wider audience that maybe wouldn't have seen it otherwise since they don't follow you. 
3. Follow other accounts that post similar things as you: If you follow other similar accounts, you can help grow both audiences and reach more people with your advocacy.
4. Share what you believe: As someone with a chronic illness trying to spread awareness about it, I have always found it important to share my own truth and lived experience. A lot of social media is fake and many people only share the good moments, but I like to show the good, the bad, and everything in between because there is a huge spectrum when living with a chronic illness. 
5. Use all forms of social media to spread your message: I use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and this blog to spread my message. I find that this way I can reach different demographics and age groups. Along with this, use all the media forms within each app. For example, on Instagram, I do regular posts, stories, reels, and videos to get my voice out there. 
6. Show your personality through your posts: You don't want your audience to find the information you're sharing to be boring, so put your own voice into it and make it interesting! 
7. Similar to #6, use plain language: You want to get information out to people in an accessible way. Most people aren't going to want to read something that's super sciency and hard to understand. 
8. BE YOURSELF: You will get people hooked on your posts by being yourself, so don't be afraid to do so!

If you've been thinking about starting a blog or social media account for something you're passionate about, this is your sign!! These tips don't just apply to chronic illness and health-related topics, you can use them for anything you are passionate about. Social media is such a great place to be able to share what you believe with a large number of people, and who knows, maybe you'll even meet new friends that way because I know I have! 

Follow me on social media!

Instagram: @endoisnottheendblog

Twitter: @endoisnothend

Facebook: Endo Is Not the End

Good Things About Quarantining with Endometriosis

This may be an unpopular opinion, but quarantining with Endometriosis is not that bad. Having a chronic disease makes you miss out on a lot of things because you never know when you're going to have a bad day. To lift spirits during this hard time, I put together a list of positives to focus on rather than negatives when it comes to having a chronic illness during a global pandemic:

• You get to work or do school from home!
• Many people with Endo have to miss work or school because they are in too much pain, but now it's a lot easier since we don't have to leave our houses.
• You can take a break whenever you want!
• I'm not sure about those who are working from home, but as a college student doing school at home, I can pretty much take a break whenever I need it which is really nice.
• You get to wear whatever you want!
• Having Endo, I hate wearing restricting pants like jeans or work pants, but even if you're on camera, no one can see you're wearing pajamas on the bottom!
• You don't have to feel bad about not making/canceling plans with people!
• I always feel terrible when I can't do things with my friends, but no one is supposed to be doing anything right now so I don't have to worry about it!
• You can do your work laying in bed!
• I don't know about the rest of you, but I have done a lot of homework in bed recently (which isn't necessarily the best thing) but it is definitely nice when sitting in the same position all day causes you a lot of pain.
• You don't have to feel pressure to have your hair and face all done up every day!
• I don't know about you, but I have barely worn makeup at all during this time at home and my skin loves it!
• You don't have to feel bad for taking time for yourself!
• For me, I always feel bad when I take time for myself to relax and destress, but I know that is something my body needs dealing with a chronic illness, so this is a great time to focus on yourself, whatever that entails. 

I know it's hard to not focus on the negatives and hardships during this time, but maybe this was meant to happen so everyone can slow done and appreciate the little things in life and take care of themselves.