Chronically Me

When I was twelve years old, I began experiencing severe stomach pain and started throwing up everything I ate or drank. I couldn’t sleep, and the pain was constant. One day it became so unbearable that I finally convinced my parents to take me to the emergency room. The doctors believed it was my appendix and scheduled me for an appendectomy the next day. I hoped the surgery would finally make me feel better. The surgery itself went well. My appendix was removed, but it wasn’t inflamed, and...

On August 8, 2023, I had jaw surgery and that was the day everything changed. My surgeon did everything right, but my body didn’t. Within days, my jaw shifted so far over, no one knew why. Braces kept falling off. Arch bars failed. I chipped all my teeth. A shift that should take five years happened to me in months. That was just the start of a nightmare I never woke up from. Since then, I’ve had 23 surgeries, developed 10 chronic illnesses with no cure, and been told over and over that...

Living with chronic illness often means carrying truths that go unseen in everyday healthcare. Behind every appointment and every chart...