amber rahim

Chronic illness: the parts we don't talk about

Monthly Archives: January 2016


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What’s different about chronic illness? No.6: When going out could end up with you in adult diapers

You’ve been busy lately and you’re winding down and settling into some rest and recovery time.

Then something terrible happens: you get an invitation. To a party. With other people, probably also people you don’t know and who don’t know you.

If you are asking “why is this a problem?”, then you have never run out of spoons before.

When you are chronically ill, management of your spoons is important. And so is living a full, happy life. And we want it to be full, don’t we?

So this invitation has come along when you are just out of spoons. You yearn to go, let off steam, have some fun. Your good friend has turned into a devilish temptress telling you

it won’t be the same without you. please come. We’ll all have a fantastic time if you are there

Now, even if they don’t say those exact words, it may feel like this. Because you want to go.

To go or not to go. That is the question.

Do you say no? Disappoint them? disappoint yourself? But take care of yourself because you’re out of spoons and what you really need to do is chill out and rest.

Or do you say yes? And go, enjoy yourself, but in the process get so used up and knackered that you are going to spend a week in bed. Silently wishing for an adult nappy

so that you don’t have to get out of bed to pee…

(No! not in that adult baby fetish way. I was going to add a picture for a laugh but I googled it and it was just too disturbing.)

And if you say yes, you’re going to have to borrow against future spoons, using energy you don’t have yet so that you can stand upright, smile, laugh. But borrowing future spoons is like borrowing money from the mafia.

The interest on your future-spoons loan is going to cripple you.

That simple invitation has turned into a poisoned apple.

Finding Shades of Grey

Now I’ve been living with a cocktail of energy draining, sometimes debilitating illnesses for some years now (IBS, Endo, depression, perfectionism and its burn out consequence) and I’d be a hermit if I hadn’t learned to adjust. And with my eldest daughter having a seriously intensive chronic illness, I couldn’t afford to keep on using up my spoons. I had to make a change.

I have always been a full on, “if you’re going to do something, do it well” kind of person. And although I thought I was lazy, my standards are sky high (that’s why I consider perfectionism an illness).

I was a very black and white thinker. But luckily for me, my eldest taught me how to think in grey.

So now when I get that invitation, there is another dimension to my choice of go/don’t go. I have multiple options:

I can go and be lively, chatty and dare I say funny.

Or I can go and find a comfy chair and chat quietly to one or two people.

I can go for an hour. ok, it always ends up longer but I blame that on my #shopkeepersyndrome (you’re the shop keeper so you can’t leave first, you need to be there for others and need to be the last to leave – when it’s closing time and you have the keys). But I can now leave a party early.

I can stay at home and arrange to see them another time.

I can just say no, no explanations, but I’m sorry that I can’t come.

I can even stay at home and actually rest, go to bed, sleep.

So many shades of grey. So many options.

None of them requiring me to resort to adult nappies because I’m too exhausted to get out of bed.


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Why being cured isn’t always the happy occasion you expect #Mondayblogs

This blog is all about living with chronic illness but what happens when you get better? It should be party time right? Life is wonderful. This is what we have been praying for. It’s celebration time, come on! (cue Kool and the Gang).

Yet, it’s not all party and celebration. You actually land in a world of mixed feelings. You’ve lived with this for so long, and now it’s gone. A big part of your life has disappeared and it’s replaced with emptiness.

It’s not a sad emptiness though. It’s kind of exciting. It’s a

Oh my god, what can I do with all this extra energy?

kind of thing.

And with that excitement comes some fear. You see, there is comfort in the known. Better the devil you know and all that. In this emptiness, anything is possible. So that means it could be both good and bad. And it probably will be both good and bad.

There are two common thoughts that run through our heads and I experienced them both last year.

  1. Is this really over?
  2. Oh my god, it’s over. What now?

1. Is this really over?

in 2014 I started an exclusion diet for my IBS. I was in pain everyday and the inflammation was making me depressed. As in, need medication because I don’t care to live, depressed. Cutting out foods from the high FODMAP list really helped. And by June 2015 I was symptom free. It was an amazing feeling, to be pain free! I was in an almost constant state of bewildered surprise, thinking

So this is what it feels like to be normal?

Until September. When my endometriosis hit a tipping point and triggered my symptoms again. So I’m actually now back to daily pain. I’m still excluding the high FODMAP foods (otherwise it would be excruciating). The pain is also different. I can feel that it’s coming from the endo; its a very specific kind of pain.

So, it’s not really over. Not this pain. And while I really enjoyed those pain free summer months, I still feel a little bit knocked down that all my work didn’t lead to a cure. But I’m picking myself back up. It’s a slow process; the drop from my euphoria was quite high.

2. Oh my god it’s over, what now?

In October last year I came of my depression meds. I was on them for 1 year. Although I hated the being on them, the hate was aimed at the necessity and the side effects. My mood was stabilised but it was stabilised at a constant, low level grump. I had a small frown on my face all the time.

And I was constantly hungry. I wanted (and did) eat all the time.

My main therapy was my exclusion diet and it worked. IT WORKED! I’m still so excited about it that I needed to shout that. Certain foods that were causing inflammation in my gut (hence the IBS) were also affecting my brain and mood. I can guarantee now that if I eat gluten, I will become miserable (I just did a gluten test with spelt at the new year and ended up feeling like my life was pointless).

So in October I came off my meds. I was so excited about doing this, and yet there was a whisper of concern. Subconsciously I was thinking

I’m never going to feel sad again. I can’t feel sad again because now I’m cured.

It doesn’t make sense but this is what was going through my head.

If I don’t need the tablets anymore, then I must be happy.

Which is true, but there was a hidden “Always” in there. That I must be happy, always.

Now that I had finally reached this stage, I am no longer depressed, it was scary.

So what am I now? My depression didn’t define me, but it also took up a huge amount of my energy, time and attention. Now that it’s gone, it’s left a big hole. This leaves me with the big philosophical question of

What is my life all about? What’s next?

So yes, I know and have accepted that I will feel sad, blue, down in the dumps. It’s normal. It’s the blackness, the heaviness, the apathy that has gone.

So now I’m enjoying the absence of apathy and blackness. I’m having a look around at the colours. I’m trying to figure out what to do with all this extra energy I have.

I must confess, this last week I wasted a lot of it. I’ve been so used to struggling that I became a little lost. And the irony? I struggled because the struggle was gone.

So if you know someone who has just had good news about their health, please don’t be surprised that they are not celebrating.

They are wondering if it will last.

They are coming to grips with the vacuum.

Don’t expect them to be over the moon. Don’t expect tears of joy. It will come. Give them time.