Introduction

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