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Happy ME/CFS & Fibromyalgia awareness day for yesterday!! Wow that wouldn’t fit on a card would it?
Yes that’s right, it’s awareness month all month, but there’s also a day allocated to the particular chronic illnesses I suffer from, to celebrate how much awareness has been raised by this blog I’m having a giveaway! I want to thank all my loyal readers and subscribers who continually encourage and support me, and share links to this blog with their friends so that one day the term ‘yuppie flu’ will fall out of use.
This giveaway is doubly awesome because it’s sponsored by this wonderful lady, Kayley, who herself is a CFS fighter. Despite her illness, Kayley makes the greatest phone cases and has founded her own company, Bulls On The Case. As soon as I saw Kayley’s cases I knew I had to get one for myself, especially because you can have a custom design.
How can you win one of your own?
This giveaway is for one iPhone case.
The winner will get to pick a case in the colour of their choice (yellow, red, mint green, black, white, pink, lilac, baby blue, and blue) and then discuss the design they want with Kayley. You can find more design ideas on the Twitter page.
The case will be shipped internationally, free of charge.
The Rules aka the boring bits
1. You must be a subscriber of this blog** to be entered into the competition. If you are not currently a subscriber, all you need to do is enter your e-mail address in the relevant box on the right hand side column.
2. Then simply post a comment on any of my blog posts, please write a proper comment relating to the post and not just ‘enter me’.
That’s it! If you don’t meet either of the two criteria above then your entry won’t be counted.
You can get a bonus entry by Tweeting a link to this blog and tagging me (@chronic_katie).
You have until the end of this month (31st May 2013) to enter. The winner will be contacted by e-mail and their name posted here. If you are under 18, please get permission from a parent or guardian.
Best of luck!
If you don’t win, don’t fear, you can always buy your own case from Kayley (which I will definitely be doing as soon as I upgrade), prices start from just £6! There will be more giveaways coming soon!!
Love Katie x
Please support Kayley & Bulls On The Case by following her on Twitter, and liking her Facebook page.
*This giveaway is sponsored by Bulls On The Case.
** If you subscribe to this blog through bloglovin’ then your entry will be counted.
While I’ve been stuck in bed the past few months, I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet, reading blogs, watching YouTube and finding interesting people on Twitter. It’s struck me in the past week or so how many of the spoonies I “follow” online manage to achieve a lot, in spite of their illness. In some cases, they’ve used their illness to their advantage. As thoughts about this were swirling around my mind one night, I pondered how these women manage to do so much, when I seem to do so little. Was it because they weren’t as sick as me? Possibly, but that’s not the whole story. After much deliberation, I decided it was because they weren’t afraid to admit they had dreams and begin taking baby steps towards achieving them.
When this academic year began, I had set my mind to focus on getting through my studies, it’s no surprise then that I fell into a depression when I got so sick again. Seeing weeks go by without my being able to study has been really difficult. I love learning, since I can remember, all I’ve wanted to do was go to university, and I love learning about politics. In a way, having tried so hard for so long to get through my degree only to keep “failing” at completing modules has just made me afraid to try anything else. I wouldn’t admit it out loud but my subconscious was saying, “why bother trying to do something you love? Your illness will only ruin it anyway.” I’ve been making plans but the majority of them have begun with the sentence, “when I’m well enough…”, which just isn’t happening.
Don’t misunderstand me, I haven’t given up on university, I will find a way to complete my degree, and I certainly haven’t given up the belief that I’ll get better, but I’m done waiting around for life to begin. That’s how Paul and I have felt, we’ve pushed ourselves to complete things, and life itself has been a real struggle for a long time, but when it comes to deepest desires, the things that mean the most to us, we’ve popped them on a shelf for “one day”. In a way, that’s allowing my illness to control us, the fear that we might only get one chance and that my illness will blow it for us, has prevented us from doing some things. There’s a certain amount of wisdom in that, but there’s been a lot of fear in that too.
This week we took the plunge and used some of our savings to book a holiday. The idea that we need to save for a rainy day has always been on our minds, and while that is generally a good principle to have, it’s made us afraid to spend any of our savings. Since we first became a couple and I got sick, we’ve been talking about going to Paris, and therefore, we’ve never wanted to spend our money on going anywhere else, because what if we can never save enough to go? Paris will still be there in future years when it is the right time for us to go, and I’m not going to believe that we’ll never get to go there if we go on holiday somewhere else. We know that we both need a holiday and we’d love to have a belated honeymoon. After all, lots of people generously gave us Euros at our wedding for that purpose. As we were chatting away about this, we both came to the realisation that although we’d love to go to a city and have an adventure, we’re both exhausted and what we really need is some time away somewhere hot, with a pool, and a beach. That’s what we did. We’ve booked a last minute holiday to Gran Canaria for a week. The fear that I felt when I clicked the little button to pay online was ridiculous, which made me all the more certain I was doing the right thing. It’s not like we’ve spent all of our savings on a crazy extravagant holiday that I obviously can’t manage. We booked something nice, albeit the cheapest place we could book, with disabled access. I don’t think I need to say any more to prove quite how unfounded my fears are.
Maspalomas, Gran Canaria
Having bitten the bullet on spending savings on a holiday, I’m determined to keep making progress on my dreams. I think putting all my eggs into the university basket was a mistake, and not one I’m going to repeat. What’s most important though is that I stop making my own contingency plans and start seeking God’s plan for my life. It might not be the most comfortable life, but I know it will be the most fulfilling life. Right now Paul and I are praying into our future and asking God where He wants us to step out in faith. Watch this space for more exciting adventures.
Love Katie x
If you use GoogleReader to follow this blog then you’ll soon be about to lose contact. Google is terminating this service in the near future, so to makes things easier for you I’ve signed up to Bloglovin so you can easily keep up to date with all my posts.
Alternatively you can get e-mail updates by popping your address in the labelled side-bar on the left hand side of this page.
If you signed up for updates from me either by e-mail or on WordPress before I moved to a self-hosted blog, I’m afraid you’ll have to re-sign up. Sorry about that, but I hope you love my blog enough to re-subscribe!
Love Katie x
Hey there readers, you must be excited to see me twice in one day. Well, I’m afraid this will be my last appearance for a week as I am taking an internet fast. I won’t be using the internet for anything except essentials for a whole seven days, that’s going to be a toughie for me. I haven’t even scheduled posts to appear while I’m offline because I felt like that would be cheating. Take the opportunity to flick through some old posts if you miss me, especially if you haven’t been a reader since the blog started, there’s a few golden oldies in the archives. You can look forward to seeing me next Saturday to hear all about how it went.
In the mean time remember…
Love Katie x
P.s. What do you think of the new colours and background? Prefer the old one or like the changes?
I hope that this post doesn’t bring too much disappointment to the regular readers of Chronic Katie when they realise that it’s not Katie writing. This is Paul, her soon to be husband, filling in for an extremely unwell Katie. It’s been a while since I last wrote on her. In fact, it’s been a while since Katie has been to too unwell to do it herself.
After a whole day, in bed, trying to muster her strength, the following is all Katie was able to write down:
I can barely think to write. I’m so exhausted. Saturday’s wedding has really warn me out. That makes me wonder if I’m going to make it through my own wedding day or if going on honeymoon straight after is a good idea. I am so frustrated about being this ill when I still have so much to do for the wedding. That’s all I can really think of right now, my mind is just so exhausted.
Although short, I think this paragraph really gives you an insight into the bad days for a sufferer of a chronic illness. It is days like this, when chronic sufferers are exhausted, isolated and in a depressed state, that people don’t normally see. Generally, people with chronic illnesses are only seen, or heard from, at their best. This makes it very difficult for people to fully grasp the true extremities of an ill person’s condition.
Chronic illness sufferers are constantly frustrated by ignorances and misunderstandings that doctors, the government, friends, family and even partners have of their condition. This is not necessarily anybody’s fault, as I said, people aren’t seen on their worst days. These misunderstandings are, however, exactly what this blog set out to counter. I am proud to be able to help raise awareness and support Katie when she’s too sick to do it herself.
P.
I don’t know about you, but I always find it difficult to imagine what a person’s day actually includes. For a bit of a difference, I thought I’d do a visual post showing the sort of things I usually do in the morning. I hope my pictures and writing are clear enough, I’m not the best artist, and I don’t have a scanner at the moment. Let me know if there’s any problems and I’ll do my best to resolve them. I’d love to know whether you, my readers, would enjoy this sort of post occasionally.
Love Katie x
Have you enjoyed reading this blog post? Please consider voting for ‘Chronic Katie’ in the Cosmo Lifestyle Blog Awards 2012. For more info click here.
…but I can’t because it hurts so flipping much when I type!
Love Katie x
p.s. Yes that was supposed to be a Wonderwall reference
Guess what? All of your support for the Cosmo Blog Awards has paid off, I’ve been short listed for the Lifestyle blog award!
Now the race is really on, there are Cosmo editor judges, but just as importantly, your votes make up 50% of my chance to win the category. I’ve had a peek at the other blogs in my category, and the competition is tough!
1. Type your email address in the indicated box. This is simply to ensure that no one can cheat but re-voting over and over, if you don’t tick the little box below where you typed your address, you won’t receive emails from Cosmo or other parties.
2. Click ‘Lifestyle’ category
3. Click ‘ChronicKatie’ and ensure the box turns red and has a tick
4. Click through the other pages of categories (Lifestyle is on page 5 of 10) until you reach the page that thanks you for your votes and summaries your choices. Please double check that I am listed next to ‘Lifestyle’.
5. Tell me here that you have voted for me so I can send you a virtual thank you huge.
AND if you’re feeling very generous, share this post or a link to the Cosmo entry form with your friends and ask them to vote for me too.
Vote for me to win by clicking here!
I know this sounds cheesy, but I really do feel so honoured to be nominated, especially when I see the other blogs in the category. Although, obviously I take being short listed as a compliment, more importantly, it is helping me reach my ultimate goal of raising awareness of chronic illnesses, and the way they affect people’s lives.
Thanks so much dear readers for your support. Every compliment, vote, view makes my day.
Love Katie x
Just a few of the letters I need to reply to!
By the time you read this I probably won’t have internet connection at home anymore so no more Netflix, much of my entertainment when I’m in bed will have been removed. I can see the positive side to this though, it will give me more of a chance to work on my writing outside of blog posts, encourage me to spend more time reading, and spend more time with God. I’m not naive enough to think simply removing a distraction won’t result in my finding another but I plan to work hard on being disciplined enough to begin spending more time on these activities. I have been planning to cut down on my computer and internet use anyway, having to end a contract works well.
Another thing I’ve been meaning to do is get better at is letter writing. I have been neglecting my Post Crossing account (read about this here) since I’ve been writing this blog. And, one of the positive outcomes of this blog has been getting new pen pals (yay!). On a reader’s recommendation I joined the Letter Writers Alliance so I’m excited about all this new membership will open up for me.
I love the internet, and one of my favourite things about blogging is “meeting new people” through the comments box and Twitter (you can tweet me by clicking on the feed is the right hand panel). Writing letters feels like an even more intimate way to do that and there is the pure joy of getting handwritten letters in the mail.
The LWA mission statement reads:
In this era of instantaneous communication, a handwritten letter is a rare and wonderous item. The Letter Writers Alliance is dedicated to preserving this art form; neither long lines, nor late deliveries, nor increasing postal rates will keep us from our mission.
That’s why as much as I love the internet, I still have a special place in my heart for letter writing.I think you share more through a letter. I am particularly excited at being able to socialise in this way. I am a very sociable person but my illness clearly limits that. Thanks to Post Crossing I now have a new friend in America.
I’m hoping my body will cooperate with my plan to write spend more time writing letters and postcards. As my medication is being increased at the moment, I am beginning to get more time in the day to use my hands, so things are looking a little better.
Love Katie x
