I’m 40ish and have had over 2 dozen surgeries and procedures in less than a decade. My heart’s electricity failed when I was 35!!! I’ve had 2 strokes, COVID twice, and now I’m dealing with possible breast cancer.

I know WHAT self-care is because I was in mental health therapy for 25+ years because my father is a Monster! He tortured me starting the day I was born!

Doesn’t matter how much self care I try. For me, it’s like a drug that no matter how much or how often you increase it, the stress doesn’t let up. I’m “too damaged” according to my therapists, so the best thing I can do for my stress is to just lay in bed and do nothing. Would you want to live like that? Could you live like that?

Of Course Not!!! That’s why every day, I wake up, I breathe deeply in and out for at least 10 minutes to re-expand my lungs(asthma sucks…literally!) I have exercises I do for my legs and arms to get the blood flowing and the numbness to go away(Fibromyalgia is a wonderful companion…BARPH!)

If Poe Kitty is in his bed, I lay down my face on his head, I snuggled his soft fur and listen to his lovely purr, I get a lick on the cheek and now my start of the day is complete!

Off to medication land. Too many to hold in one hand. My pill minder is too much of a hassle, after a decade I know what I need to control the disaster. That’s how I see my health right now… it’s a disaster and more waiting to happen. Been that way for many years now. 2007 was the first year I had 2 major surgeries(March and July) and STILL went to college class. Took a final after a cyst blew out my right ovary, tube and part of my uterus. FUN TIMES! 2009 brought reconstructive sinus surgery due to chronic sinus infection and my father breaking my nose a dozen times. My face did not form correctly and had to be rebuilt so my sinuses worked properly. Later that month I was in the hospital with C-Diff(Clostridioides difficile Look it up… it’s gross. ) because I had taken to many antibiotics, Cepro being the #1 problem. DO NOT TAKE CEPRO UNLESS YOU ARE DYING!!! Just the opinion of someone who has been through “medical hell” and knows her way around many a “medical emergency”, Cardiac episodes, broken bones, strokes, seizures, PTSD brain damage… I could continue but I think you get the idea.

What has all this lead to… I’m self-employed and am a full time AUTHOR!!! I get to write all day every day if I want to. I put pen to paper and that is where I am most happy. If I have to go through medical hell to be an author… on my head be it!

Prose and Photo
© 2024 Lady Kate Phillips
Pen name: Kat J Phillips
“I see… what others refuse to see.
I am… what others refuse to be”