Showing posts with label raising awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label raising awareness. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Back to the Game

Horst's unpredictability really starts to wear me out. Don't get me wrong on this. I'm not complaining. Not at all actually because today I felt so much better than yesterday. So surprising turn into the right direction for the first time. Drum roll!

proudly wearing purple
So I decided to go for a short 5k run this morning. Well short needs to be redefined in this case, at least for me. Felt more like a marathon. At least to me. Not so much for my friend who was so nice to accompany me. He kept telling me this was rather a walk than a run, but duh, i leaped the 5k hurdle today! 

Also I started wearing my IBD/Colon Cancer Ribbon when I'm going for a run. It's weird, I mean I know I'm still running on my own, or like today, trying to make up the leeway between me and my running partner. Anyway, wearing my ribbon draws me back to those people suffering the day I'm able to go out for a run. So this one is for you. Also, I learned to be proud of Horst. I'm not going to hide him or anything, he makes me to who I am and hopefully brings me towards being a better person. Maybe even tomorrow. Oh and today is May 1st, and this means IBD Awareness Month starts today in Australia. I think it's so good to know they even have a whole month for raising awareness for IBD and other invisible illnesses. Raising awareness is so important, especially to us people affected. This is also why I am so so excited for May, 19th which is World IBD Day. So be sure     to get pumped for that one, go out, wear purple and help spreading awareness! 

I also have had amazing food today, yes guys, back to the game, back to my unconditional love for food! This is also why I decided to have a new section on my blog about Horst's Favorite Recipes talking about my favorite recipes when it comes to food which me and Horst like. Yes, they actually do exist! So I'm going to work on that in the near future. So just some pictures of awesome food for closing tonight, sleep well my honey wells! (certainly being in a good mood due to a surprisingly good day)

Mango-Banana-Smoothie
Selfmade Tomato-Bruschetta

Friday, 25 April 2014

The Things You Can't See


So I guess the title already indicates a lot. I know a lot of you might believe that it is weird how I can jump from being full of happiness and joy to a person feeling all lonely, desperate and sad. I would have thought this is weird three months ago. But right now, I know better. 

I'm all happy because I'm going through the challenge of TCJF with so many other IBDler and I know that we can do this together, be strong together. It makes me feel belonging to a group of people. I'm not saying that I have no friends, but this is different. Like way different. This are people that go exactly through what I'm going through and they on their side know the same about me. Having an autoimmune disease that is only rarely talked about in public is more than just a disease with symptoms. It's pain. It's medication with major side effects. It's permanent fatigue. It's feeling permanently sick and weak. It's becoming different around others because your life is so much different from theirs. This makes you lonely. Saying that you feel lonely makes your friends think that you don't care any longer whether they are there or not. Even if you do. And you do. You always do. The thing is people cannot know what you are going through until they feel it themselves which I would never want for anybody else. And this is why you feel so damn lonely even when you're surrounded by loving people caring a hell lot for you. 

I spent my evening yesterday with a good friend I haven't seen in a while even though we still live in the same city. Guess, that's the prize of going to university, not seeing your friends from school. It felt so warm at heart to have someone to talk openly to about my disease. It was nice how we can still talk for ages about the most random stuff, some things will never change, some things are still untouched by Horst. A lot of people with IBD say that their disease actually helped them finding true friends on which you can always count. To me, this isn't true, at least not completely. The more people I talk to, the more I realized the people closest to my heart are also those who to me react in a perfect way. Just treating me as a normal person, just being me, Valerie. So I guess I already had a pretty fine taste when it comes to friends. However, other people in my life won't be there that much longer. And actually I'm not too sad about these circumstances as I simply have not enough energy and time for their negative and superficial bullshit. Still, I'd like to say that the girl from yesterday certainly belongs to the first group of people in my life, thank you so much darling. 

Still, she had to leave. And I was all by myself. Feeling lonely. Then another friend wrote something in her blog (http://lucians-bookmark.blogspot.de/2014/04/inflammatory-bowel-disease-ulcerative.html) about me which certainly touched me a lot. In several ways. Ways I cannot yet explain. When I told somebody about my feelings about this post he told me that I shouldn't be touched that much by something laying in the past, something that I'm already over. And with my strength right now, it'll all be alright. I'd be lying if I would say that I didn't want to hear that, especially because this is exactly the title of my blog. However, I had to realized that I might not yet be ready to be told so. Because truth is, I still need time even though I'm trying very hard to feel fine and to only express positive vibes on this blog. But I wanted it to be realistic and reality isn't always as nice as you want it to be. Truth is, I'm not over it, I'm still crying a lot in the nights trying to understand why it has to be me going through this even though I would never want this for anybody else. I know that wallowing in self-pity won't make it any easier or better but I can't fight against it right now. And nobody else can do this for me. So here I am, all alone. 

But I'm a strong person and as strong person I won't close this post with such a thought. So here's what I had yesterday and today (yes, still following the #21TCJF Challenge):

Thursday, 24th March
Breakfast: Leftovers of the banana bread
Lunch: Again Leftovers from the Tuna Salad (that bowl was just way too big)
Dinner: a mild Indian chicken curry & rice & blood orange juice
Exercise: just a short walk w/ my friend

Indian chicken curry & rice


Friday, 25th March
Breakfast: Banana & Apple 
Lunch: Leftovers from the Indian chicken curry
Dinner: (spoiler) I have no idea, I'm having a date! 
Snack: self-made apple-cinnamon muffins 
Exercise: none

self-made apple-cinnamon muffins