Fibro Maggie Blog

Be Kind to Yourself One of the most difficult things I found when I was going through the first few years of learning to live with chronic illness, was being kind to myself and listening to my body.  The first year after my diagnosis I had physically lost everything. I was no longer able to work, I couldn't drive because of the slipped disc in my back and then I lost the use of my legs ending up in a wheelchair. In my mind I no longer had the ability to be a 'worthwhile' human. Of course I was grieving. I was grieving the loss of what I believed to be my identity. So of course, as I have never liked being told what to do, I rebelled. "You can't stop me I'm invincible, even on four wheels!". Obviously as you can imagine this didn't go down too well with my body and so eventually, I had to accept that my life would never be the same again. Getting out of bed was exhausting. By the time I had managed to wash and get dressed I was in so much pain I needed ...

My Story... Part 1 - The Finding Out Have you ever had one of those days where you search endlessly for that hot cup of tea you made 30 minutes ago, only to find it in the fridge? Well...welcome to brain fog!    In 2014 I was busy multi-tasking jobs. During the week I taught as a performing arts lecturer at a local college and examined for a national board. In the evenings I was a paid director and choreographer for local, and some not so local, amateur dramatics musical shows. At the weekend, as well as the usual preparation and marking, teachers are bound to, I ran my own dance classes.  Now you might be sitting there thinking well that sounds like quite a lot, especially if you are a teacher, director, choreographer or examiner. However, obviously I am a self-professed superhero, I am female, I was born a superhero, all women are! Now before I hear shouts from the menfolk, I did not say men were not. In fact, I know many male superhero's, so be calm, you can have...