• PEM Symptoms: My Body’s Accounting Department Has No Mercy

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    There’s this thing called PEM — Post-Exertional Malaise. Fancy medical term for you only have so much energy and if you overspend, you’ll regret it for days. For me, PEM is the defining symptom of the ME/CFS that shadows my other diagnoses — the POTS, EDS, and MCAS that are all constantly fighting for control over my system. But frankly, most doctors treat it like a suggestion rather than a biological wall. How It Works For Me I have a teeny-tiny finite amount of energy every single day. We’re talking a strict, non-negotiable budget that does not roll over, does not accept credit, and absolutely does not care about your plans. Every single thing I do costs something. And when the budget runs out —…

  • My POTS Diagnosis Story

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    I have a very weird medical chart, but if I had to pick the most exhausting symptom to explain to a stranger, it’s the fact that my body is actively allergic to standing up. Seriously. My body hates gravity. Most people take standing up for granted. You roll out of bed, you stand at the sink to brush your teeth, you walk to the mailbox. Your brain and your heart have a nice, quiet convo, your blood vessels constrict, and your blood pressure stays exactly where it belongs so you don’t pass out. My body missed that memo entirely. And the roots of this gravity battle go all the way back to 2015. Granted, I wasn’t officially diagnosed with POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) until…

  • My hEDS Diagnosis Story

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    I was a bendy kid. I could do a backbend and walk my hands all the way back to my feet until my body made an O. I mostly sat with my legs in a W on the floor. So comfy. I would also sit with my legs tucked behind my head like a pretzel. I slept in a kind of child’s pose every night, but legs in a W and hands curled inward tucked under my chin. Just how my body wanted to be. I thought I was just built different. Cool, even. My body could do things other kids’ bodies couldn’t, and nobody told me otherwise, so I filed it under fun party tricks and moved on. Nobody mentioned hypermobility. Nobody mentioned Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome….

  • The Misdiagnosis Pipeline

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    Trigger Warning: This post briefly mentions self-harm and suicide. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar disorder, MDD, GAD, OCPD, and PMDD. Oh, and I’m autistic. Collectively, that alphabet soup of a list isn’t a brag. It’s a warning label about what happens when the medical system doesn’t see the forest through the trees. It’s a cautionary tale of how many wrong turns a person can take when nobody knows how to look at the whole picture. Let’s start at the beginning. The Five-Year-Old Twirler I was five years old when I was diagnosed with ADHD combined type. Couldn’t focus, couldn’t sit still, stood up randomly to twirl at my desk then sat back down like nothing happened. The diagnosis is right but incomplete. I was…

  • Medical Gaslighting: Why I Had To Become My Own Doctor

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    Why do doctors go to medical school? Apparently, so I could diagnose myself. Let me tell you what doctors spend at least eight years learning: That’s it. Hey! I guess you’re a doctor now too. Congratulations! *rolls eyes* Our healthcare system is designed to solve single-symptom problems on a corporate assembly line. But human beings — especially neurospicy, chronically ill human beings — don’t work that way. We are a beautiful, complex tapestry. Conditions like hEDS, POTS, and MCAS weave across your entire body, affecting your brain, your joints, your sensory processing, and your hormones all at once. But doctors? They only ever look at one single thread at a time, try to “solve” it in a fifteen-minute appointment, and call it a day. Can’t…