33 and its diagnosis

Hey guys,
So its me again, my second blog entry. Its amazing how its easy to write the first one but the second one is hard to write. But once you sit behind the pc or laptop your fingers just keep typing. So let's see if I'm able to keep you engaged.

Well in my last blog, I did mention that I have had some health issues and been diagnosed with different issues. You know as a Ghanaian, there are things you keep private, especially health diagnosis. You don't share such private details and I am sure people are going to say like what? are you crazy why would you let everyone know about it.  But, having said that there is a saying in Fante, well at least I only know it in Fante. "If you don't sell your disease you don't get a cure". Its amazing how true it is. Sometimes talking about your problems or your issues , you realize that there are many people who have experienced it and can help you go through it. Or at least are going through it and felt alone and didn't know what to do so by hearing about yours they don't feel alone. Well I will either be your support by sharing my experience or whoever reads it will be my support.

Ok so let's start with the issue or diagnosis number 1. So I realized that since 2013, during that time of the month, it was torture. I had never had difficult... ok let  me use a more favourable term during my auntie flo or biscuit (pronounced the french way.) (That's how we called it in holy child, I honestly do not know the relation between cookies and a period, maybe the fact that I can eat a whole box during that time) Anyways for lack of a better word during my biscuit it was getting extremely painful and heavy. I couldn't understand it. I mean how can I go from having normal regular bicuits and now I feel like I am in labour every month. Anyways, long story short, I went to see my lady doctor and let me quickly explain something. In Canada, health care is free but getting to see a specialist takes months. Your GP has to refer you to a specialist and then it can take months to get a specialist to call you for an appointment. Unless  you are dying or let me be honest, two seconds to dropping dead before your appointments is rushed if not you wait like the masses. Just picture for my Ghanaian readers going to  Korle Bu and you are using the free government health card.  The long wait you have to see a doctor. Well  that's how it is here to see a specialist. It takes months .Anyways so I finally saw one and he had the pleasure of telling me after running some test that I've been diagnosed with fibroids. Honestly, it was a relief because it made sense why my tummy always looked like I was 6 months preggers during my period. I remember telling my friend that yo! I know I am a foodie but this belly cannot be just from food this doesn't make any sense. Then the doctor starts so when are you trying to get pregnant you know you have to get pregnant soon your age is against you. blah blah blah. How did I go from you have all the time in the world to you have a short time to have kids. Scary business but at the end of the day what can I do?  Find a random man and say do you want to be my baby daddy? Or even better,  on match.com  as my profile statement, "have fibroids looking for a baby daddy". But the scariest thing was calling my dear parents and telling them. My mom damn near cried on the phone, started saying "Lord why me, did I do something in my past life for my daughter to be punished for it". "Why doesn't she have a man so she can try and get pregnant". At that point I'm on the phone with her rolling my eyes, half listening and half looking for a burrito stop to get me a burrito.  For me at that moment now that I can justify my gut with the fibroids I needed to find food so I could eat and blame the fibroids for my belly. So listening to my mother go on and on crying about my fibroids wasn't really working for my hunger. Anyways to wrap up my fibroids, its been a battle. My periods are not fun, still seeing my docs, and recently had an another ultra sounds because the pain is worse and so is the biscuit.

Ok diagnosis 2, sit tight guys its a long blog, so take a break, grab a drink or a biscuit lol and come back to read. So yeah for pretty much since my teenage years I used to get boils under my armpits. Normal right?If you shave in the wrong direction you get ingrown hairs and it turns into boils. Anyways in 2014, I got boils in my armpit but they won't go away. My armpits will get inflamed and sore and pussy ( I mean pus you know the fluid that comes out of boils) its gross. Anyways fast forward to 2015, boils are in both armpits now its all over my armpits and its not fun, going for wound dressing every other day to bandage my armpits. I finally got an appointment with a Dermatologist, again go back to diagnosis one and see reference for how long it takes to get a specialist. She finally  diagnosed me with hidradenitis supprativa ( don't ask me to pronounce, I had to watch a youtube video to get the proper pronunciation) Basically what it is is its an auto immune disease, (auto immune disease when your immune system fights itself) so any part of the body where pubic hair grows you can get these boils and there are painful boils, and it can spread all over. Unfortunately there is no cure for it because, not enough research has gone into it. The cause nobody knows, the believe its hereditary, so again my mother when I told her the diagnosis, more tears, this time she believes its not from her side of the family. Ooh did I mention she took blame for the fibroids because she had it, so this time she passes the blame to my dad. Then she starts to worry, who would want to date me now or marry me because I have this condition. Again, my mind was elsewhere when she was crying. Don't get me wrong guys, I am not insensitive at all. I understand my mother's concerns and I am grateful for her worry because, when she worries I do not have to worry.  I do not need to add this worry to all the other things I worry about.

I've been seeing a naturopath who has been great, helping me treat this condition through natural methods, I am currently going to be going paleo, because as you may know a lot of our ailments are environmental so if you change your eating habits, and take care of your body you can put conditions into remission or at least reverse them. I need to get the weight loss into check so then I can go into remission. Its been a long battle, I must say, the minute I left Ghana I got plagued with all these issues. I'm not blaming Canada for it, maybe its the fact that these things were already inside me but just surfaced when I moved. Its been a lot of stress, settling into Canada, trying to find a better job, trying to get out of the single life. Life changing so its only natural that my body will fight back. I am now fighting back getting my life back.

So here it is folks, I felt I should get the hard, depressing stuff out of the way and my subsequent post will be more fun and light hearted. Besides 30s is supposed to be fun and exciting, so I as go on this journey, I will take you on it. next topic will be about love, my love life or lack there of but it shall be a fun one to talk about or not.

Thanks again for indulging me and my blog, Until next time

Xoxo
A.P.W