![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Writer's Block: A mile in these shoes
Sep. 30th, 2010 11:54 am[Error: unknown template qotd]
I would probably choose to be my brother. Some of you may know he has various health problems resulting from a virus he caught Christmas 2005, including (and this is a long list) fibromyalgia, tachycardia, low blood pressure, scoliosis, asthma, IBS, alopecia; he also has Raynaud's, though that came before the virus, and various joint problems (which I have too, inherited from our mother). He gets bad headaches and neck spasms a lot too. Also, he suffers from depression sometimes. I think that's the whole list, but I can't be 100%.
I would become him for a week, just to see how hard it is for him, to get to class and be active all day, et cetera. I've said it to him before, that I'd swap bodies with him for a day, to give him a break and also satisfy my curiosity. The fibromyalgia can be improved with exercise, but his tachycardia and asthma stop him doing much exercise. Sometimes he will even need a rest after climbing the stairs.
But it could be worse - for the first two years or so after the virus, he had chronic fatigue (also known as ME), and this was Hell. I helped him out a lot, helping him get dressed, even feeding him sometimes as he was too tired to feed himself. A typical day then would be: getting up for school (and even then sometimes the fibro was so bad that he couldn't get out of bed, so we never knew if he'd be going to school until the morning), going to school, coming home, going to sleep until dinner, having dinner (and as I say sometimes he'd need to be fed), and then going back to sleep until it was time for bed, at which point I'd help him into his pajamas. It was a pretty lonely time for me as well, as I'm so used to us spending every moment together! And it was at this time that the depression took its toll - he was self-harming pretty badly, to the point where he'd hide scissors, razors, whatever, from me in the waistband of his trousers, and he also attempted suicide in 2007, but he is adamant he will never become that bad again, although when his mental health problems get a grip, sometimes it's hard to let them go. I'm very glad I'm always around to support him in that aspect too.
We've had moments where we thought he might have leukemia, and epilepsy (for a few years he was fitting very often), so his current situation is a lot better than before. Having to walk into campus every day he's already seeing the fibro improving a bit :) He and I are both aware he'll never be cured, so I must forget ever going bike riding with him again :( but he takes it in his stride mostly, and puts his all into what he CAN do, not what he can't. He's very very intelligent, so he's got uni to concentrate on, as well as his novelwriting, poems and lyrics. Yes, the depression rears its ugly head every once in a while, but I don't think things will get as bad as they were in 2005-07 again.
Sorry, firstly to everyone reading - instead of a simple 'why would I choose to become my brother for a week?' you got 'history of my brother's health', hahaha. And to Rich, I'm sorry for waving your dirty laundry out in public here! I know you never make a big deal about your problems, you don't like to tell everyone everything, and it does seem very dramatic when it's laid out like it is here!
I would probably choose to be my brother. Some of you may know he has various health problems resulting from a virus he caught Christmas 2005, including (and this is a long list) fibromyalgia, tachycardia, low blood pressure, scoliosis, asthma, IBS, alopecia; he also has Raynaud's, though that came before the virus, and various joint problems (which I have too, inherited from our mother). He gets bad headaches and neck spasms a lot too. Also, he suffers from depression sometimes. I think that's the whole list, but I can't be 100%.
I would become him for a week, just to see how hard it is for him, to get to class and be active all day, et cetera. I've said it to him before, that I'd swap bodies with him for a day, to give him a break and also satisfy my curiosity. The fibromyalgia can be improved with exercise, but his tachycardia and asthma stop him doing much exercise. Sometimes he will even need a rest after climbing the stairs.
But it could be worse - for the first two years or so after the virus, he had chronic fatigue (also known as ME), and this was Hell. I helped him out a lot, helping him get dressed, even feeding him sometimes as he was too tired to feed himself. A typical day then would be: getting up for school (and even then sometimes the fibro was so bad that he couldn't get out of bed, so we never knew if he'd be going to school until the morning), going to school, coming home, going to sleep until dinner, having dinner (and as I say sometimes he'd need to be fed), and then going back to sleep until it was time for bed, at which point I'd help him into his pajamas. It was a pretty lonely time for me as well, as I'm so used to us spending every moment together! And it was at this time that the depression took its toll - he was self-harming pretty badly, to the point where he'd hide scissors, razors, whatever, from me in the waistband of his trousers, and he also attempted suicide in 2007, but he is adamant he will never become that bad again, although when his mental health problems get a grip, sometimes it's hard to let them go. I'm very glad I'm always around to support him in that aspect too.
We've had moments where we thought he might have leukemia, and epilepsy (for a few years he was fitting very often), so his current situation is a lot better than before. Having to walk into campus every day he's already seeing the fibro improving a bit :) He and I are both aware he'll never be cured, so I must forget ever going bike riding with him again :( but he takes it in his stride mostly, and puts his all into what he CAN do, not what he can't. He's very very intelligent, so he's got uni to concentrate on, as well as his novelwriting, poems and lyrics. Yes, the depression rears its ugly head every once in a while, but I don't think things will get as bad as they were in 2005-07 again.
Sorry, firstly to everyone reading - instead of a simple 'why would I choose to become my brother for a week?' you got 'history of my brother's health', hahaha. And to Rich, I'm sorry for waving your dirty laundry out in public here! I know you never make a big deal about your problems, you don't like to tell everyone everything, and it does seem very dramatic when it's laid out like it is here!
