Life Lessons from a Health Crisis
On March 22nd, my life turned upside down.
On this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I suddenly found myself experiencing excruciating pain in my head, loss of vision + feeling in the side of my body, confusion and the inability to speak. Fearing that I was having a stroke, my husband rushed me to the ER, where I spent hours having CT scans, MRIs and multiple tests run while I fell in and out of consciousness.
A stroke was finally ruled out, and I was told that I was experiencing a hemiplegic migraine and sent home with a referral to a neurologist, which was scheduled for July (yes, four months later).
Anyone who has battled an illness - especially an invisible one - knows exactly what I've been through over the course of the last four weeks. Countless doctors visits (truly, I've lost count), thousands of dollars spent even with health insurance, and still no exact answers as to why I continue to have debilitating migraines, why they've suddenly come out of the blue, and what things look like moving forward.
During all of this, several truths slapped me in the face, and I feel like I'm not the only one who would benefit from these reminders.
Reminder #1: You know your body best.
I'm truly exhausted by the amount of conversations I've had with medical "professionals" these last few weeks who doubted what I was telling them and tried to shut me down. I know I shouldn't be shocked by this, especially because we know that this sort of bias shows up even more for marginalized individuals (link to research in the comments), and we know it doesn't stop in the medical field.
Reminder #2: You are your best advocate.
In the doctor's office or the workplace - you need to advocate for YOU.
Your trajectory in life (and your place on the neurologist's waitlist) will stall if you're waiting for someone else to push for you.
Reminder #3: Gratitude.
I'd be lying if I said I've had an attitude of gratitude over the last few weeks, but I had to make it a practice to try to reframe things whenever possible and whenever it felt authentic to do so (no toxic positivity here). On a day when I was in tears from the frustration of not being able to do something that used to be part of my daily routine, I managed to remind myself that I had made it downstairs to refill my water bottle - something I hadn’t been able to do just the week before. Imagine if we recognized - and celebrated - all the tiny, mundane tasks that we do all the time and take for granted.
Reminder #4 (and the most important one for me): Slow Down
Even without a true diagnosis, I have no doubt that stress and my over-scheduled life played into this somehow. My better days right now are days when I go at a slower pace and don't push myself as hard (I see what you're trying to tell me, body!). You can only go at max speed for so long before your body forces you to a halt.
None of these are groundbreaking but they're easy to ignore until you can't. Make yourself a priority 💜
