Compassion & understanding

Hiiii,

I know it’s been a minute but I’ve been quite busy…. living life lol and it felt amazing. I spent some time away from home - visiting friends and family and it was a much needed break. I didn’t feel stressed at all and felt.. happy. Now I’m back home. Life has been quite good - most of the time. I started taking pictures every day, started doing photoshoots, and it kept me busy and inspired. There’s less work on the music side, but I’m trying to make the best of the situation by exploring my love for photography.

I’ve been meaning to tell you about a symptom I’ve been having but didn’t really recognize until recently: heat intolerance. I’ve been experiencing it for a few months but I just didn’t know what to think until I understood that it was one of those graves’ disease symptoms. Well, I can still handle heat - kinda, but when it’s really hot, I feel weak and tired and I sometimes feel like I can pass out. I could handle heat normally in the past but lately, things have been weird. But it is getting better. July was really hard on that side though. It is weird how those symptoms can come and go.

I don’t know if I told you but my last blood test was in July and it was positive :) I am getting better. My doctor told me to do my next blood test in September and see what we do then. Right now I’m sticking to my one pill routine. Sooo I guess we will see. I am still doing whatever I can to heal.

There’s something else I wanted to talk about. There’s this thing about being sick and not being considered or seen by people just because it is not an important disease like cancer (although this disease can turn into a cancer, and this is my biggest worry) or because it is not something you see physically (although graves’ disease can have symptoms that affect you physically…). I’ve been experiencing this lately and it feels like I am not sick to people when I actually am. I go through some weird stuff and weird feelings and weird symptoms, things that a few friends hear about, but these friends actually understand and know how it is to actually be sick and to not be seen. I am not asking for people to make a big deal out of it because I’m not dying (yet lol), but more understanding would be appreciated. I don’t really like hearing stuff like “your disease is not serious”, when it is something I may have to deal for a long time (and maybe for the rest of my life). Taking medications every day and doing blood tests every month are not fun.

Just like mental illness, it is not because you don’t see it that it’s not there. Compassion and understanding are important.

That is all I wanted to say :)

I’m not here to beg for mercy, I am just here to tell my story and to help people 💜

Thank you for reading this blog and I hope you are doing well - wherever you are.

Love,

Virginie