Alright y’all this is a bit of a journey. So! I am Chronically Ill and it’s from a mixture of many things. Allow me to list the ways:

• Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Spinal malformation
• Spinal Neuropathy
• Joint malformation and deterioration
• Diminished Immune system

The doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital out in Houston did all that they could for me. My middle school nurse noticed I always walked with a limp, did an assessment on me, and wrote a strongly worded recommendation to my parents. The rest was history. From ages 13 to 18, there were biweekly visits downtown to Texas Children’s for medication administration and movement tests. There were shots injected via my stomach, diodes and wires all over the place, and the constant feeling of my kidneys wanting to swell and pop. My condition got worse before it got better. The medications back then were a lot more aggressive on the body, and my organs suffered because of it. My liver, kidneys, and lungs all work but are not in the best of shape from the treatments I received. Pride kept me from using a cane during my high school years, which did adversely affect my hips, but nowadays I care way less about optics and more about getting around with less pain.

At the early half of 18, I was declared in remission and have been ever since. I get tested yearly just in case it decides to flare its ugly head back up, but so far so good.

Now, into my adult years, things get much more interesting. Some of these ailments were self-inflicted through very poor habits, while others were ‘naturally formed.’ In my twenties, a new catastrophe struck: tumors, cysts, and endometriosis. I had become severely ill and in pain from something happening to my lower right abdomen. One CT scan later, and I was informed of the following:

• Tumor A. wrapped around my right ovary and the connecting tissue of the fallopian tube. The pain was from the tumor effectively ‘crushing’ the fallopian tube and ripping it from the ovary. It was the tumor that was holding those pieces together at that point.
• Tumor B. smaller but connected to the top of my left ovary without any additional damage.
• Cyst A was directly on my uterus and about the width of a quarter.
• Cyst B was tucked behind my Uterus and much harder to get to.

With how severe the situation was, my OBGYN advised surgery ASAP as they feared the ripped tissue could turn necrotic or cause internal bleeding. The surgery left me with an 8-inch scar, a damaged uterus, and only one ovary and fallopian tube remaining. What should have been a 4-hour surgery turned into 6 hours due to bad complications. The doctor and staff did not see how bad the endometriosis tissue was in my uterus, which caused the complications. When they removed the cyst and failed fallopian tube, the sutures they used ripped back open as they were closing me back up. They cleaned out as much of the scar tissue as they could, but the damage had been done. The pain from the rough surgery mixed with ongoing untreated abdominal pain forced me to drop out of college, as I could not drive, let alone sit in a class while constantly writhing and in constant severe pain.

Alcoholism runs rampant in my family history, and I sadly was not spared that fate. Drinking was a fun vice at first, but after all that had happened with my surgery, I drank to alleviate the pain post-surgery. That horrific habit continued until March of 2020, when I quit the stuff altogether.

We’re not out of the woods yet, however, so stick with me here. During my struggle with alcoholism, something happened. My speech had worsened; I would experience bouts of aphasia where I would completely forget what I was trying to say and struggle to form new sentences once I hit that wall. My arms would have trouble working at any capacity. It would worsen to the point where I couldn’t do basic things like type for days at a time.

I foolishly ignored it, thinking it was just the booze hitting critical mass, and in a way I wasn’t wrong. In 2024, I was fortunate enough to get referred to a brilliant neurologist at St. David’s. Some blood work and a few horrifically claustrophobic MRIs later – we found it. My neurologist determined that sometime in the last 10 years, I had suffered a stroke. The scar tissue is visible on the rear right side of my brain and, thankfully, has shown no signs of worsening.

Now, in 2025, I’m proudly 5 years sober and much more stabilized. With all my afflictions, I am considered disabled, but I don’t let that distinction hold me back in life. I’m much healthier than I was back then. I’ve gotten most of my lost functions back (I still suffer a small stutter and my arms will have moments of neuropathy issues), and while I still have to use a cane to this day, I don’t mind it all that much anymore.