Hiya! I’m Kiera. I’m 25 years old and I hail from Belfast,
Northern Ireland. I currently live in the vibrant city of Glasgow, Scotland.
If we’re already acquainted, whether that be personally or
via my various social media handles, you’ll probably know me for my love of makeup
& drag culture, horror movies and anything that harkens me back to the early
90’s.
I’m an avid supporter of the LGBT community, feminism and the
right to clog your Facebook feed full of dog related memes.
However, beneath this eccentric, cheerful exterior and the
witty, pop culture-loving image I portray online – dark and dramatic plot twist
coming up, guys – I happen to suffer from an illness that is eating me up from
the inside.
Okay, I don’t mean that literally. Something isn’t actually physically
chowing down on my internal organs.. although it does sometimes feel like that.
The truth is, I have a debilitating, chronic condition called endometriosis.
Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you haven’t.
Endometriosis is a condition which isn’t as widely known or
well understood as it should be. It’s a disease which is so common that 1 in 10
women worldwide suffer from it. There’s no known cause and more importantly, no
cure.
The real kicker being that not all women are aware they have
it. In cases such as these, where it’s not diagnosed early enough or at all,
women tend to experience difficulty falling pregnant, or infertility
altogether.
It’s for this reason that I consider myself (somewhat) lucky
that my body began to show symptoms which prompted me to seek help. I had
already suffered ten years of agonising, heavy periods before an additional two
years of ongoing excruciating pelvic pain then came during the remainder of my
menstrual cycle. It wasn’t until then that I was admitted for a plethora of
tests and examinations. Lastly came my diagnostic laparoscopy. I’ll save you a
Google search – surgery is required to receive a diagnosis.
So, I guess this is why I’ve decided to start a blog. I
suffer from a number of symptoms due to this shitty illness that hinder me from
leading a so called “normal life”. I’ll try to skip the gory details – or,
maybe I won’t. My primary goal is to raise awareness because I feel that’s
something that’s really lacking, and perhaps being as open and gritty as
possible is what’s needed to open people’s eyes.
I’ve always wanted to speak more openly about my condition
and how I cope on a daily/weekly basis, not just in the hopes of it bringing
comfort to other sufferers to show they’re not alone, but also to gain
understanding from people and let them see how the most routine tasks can be
challenging for me to tackle on my “bad” days.
Some days are harder than others and I can’t stress enough
how much it takes a toll on me. Endo has effected and continues to effect my
social life, personal relationships, jobs and probably most importantly, my
mental health.
Over the past few years, I found one of my biggest struggles
was having nobody to relate to. I constantly battled with the frustration of
nobody understanding exactly what I was going through, and more importantly, not
taking me seriously. I guess that’s part and parcel of invisible illnesses.
I now have an incredible support network that surrounds me
full of people who remind me just how strong I am and encourage me on the days
when I need it most. I know not everyone is lucky enough to have that, so if I
can be a figure of support for someone reading this, then mission accomplished.
This introduction post isn’t a cry for help, nor is it
intended to be a sob story. I’d like to use this blog as a platform to let my
fellow endo-suffers know that there’s a light at the end of this long, shit
stained tunnel (yep, that was an IBS joke). Not to mention, I find screaming
into the abyss of the Internet to be quite cathartic sometimes.
Don’t let this put you off though, I’m not all doom and gloom
even if I might appear so; I mean I wear a lot of black. I’ll be featuring
(somewhat) frequent posts on general goings-on in my life and maybe the odd
review now and again of beauty products I like. I mean, that’s what people look
for in a blog these days, right?
Failing all of the above, perhaps I’ll just say fuck it and
turn this into an online shrine devoted to pictures of dogs. Stay tuned, I
guess!
Kiera xo
