The Backstory
Part 1 I have an invisible illness. It’s nameless. Looking back, I’ve struggled my entire life with symptoms of allergies, depression and anxiety, sleeping and breathing issues…but it wasn’t until my 20’s that my symptoms began to skyrocket. I first thought I had sprained my ankle but couldn’t remember hurting it. My right foot was swollen and an achy painfulness. It never went away. At the time we had no health insurance so I iced and elevated and the swelling would come and go with varying degrees of severity. It was a few years until I was able to go to a doctor. A course of steroids later I was told they had no diagnosis. “You just swell”. I tried another doctor. X-rays, veinous dopplars, blood work and more for the same non-diagnosis. I was out of money, frustrated and grossed out by my own body. Years passed. I had kids and the swelling got worse. Somedays I could literally sink my finger all the way into my foot. Doctor’s still couldn’t give ...