Why I’m Finally Choosing Recovery

I'm choosing recovery... One day and one meal at a time
I’m choosing recovery… One day and one meal at a time

Anorexia nervosa: two words that hold an unspeakable amount of pain and torment; an illness that takes over your mind and ravages your body; a disease that kills 5% of its victims; a nightmare that ruins your life; a condition that might happen to other people, but not to me… Until it did.

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New Year News

2016: The year I'm finally well?
2016: The year I’m finally well?

I haven’t had time to write a longer post for a few weeks, but I just wanted to assure you that I haven’t disappeared.

I’ve been away, not because I’m ill, but because I’m well. In fact, I’d say I’m the best I’ve been in the last nine years.

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Staying the Course

I didn't think I could finish that half-marathon, but I did!
I didn’t think I could finish that half-marathon, but I did!

I’ll never forget when I ran my first half-marathon in May.

While some people might remember the elation of achieving such a momentous feat, what I remember most was the pit in my stomach whenever I saw a mile marker—all I could think about was how many more I had left and how impossible it seemed that I would finish.

But I made it to the end.

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OCD Week: Unlocking The Box

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I couldn’t believe what I found in this box.

A few months ago during one of my trips home, I came across an old lock-box where I used to hide things as a child, but I couldn’t remember what I would’ve put in it. Tiny toys? Candy? Secret notes?

What I found there instead shocked me.

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Why I’m Better, Not Over It

This week, I woke up and cried.

99% of the time, I focus on how wonderful it is to be in remission, and I don’t allow myself to think about how awful my life used to be.  I don’t let myself feel sorry for myself.  I try to not dwell on the past.  But several nights per week, I have nightmares—most of which revolve around everything that happened to me.  And these are what break me.

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“You’re Better.”

It's a new day!
Everything is different now, like a new day

 “You’re better.”

Those are two words I never thought I’d hear from my doctor. But this week, I finally did.

As my mom and I made the trip to my doctor’s office this week, I couldn’t help but feel that things were different this time—and most of all, that I was different. I was more present. I was more aware. I was bright-eyed again. I was finally myself.

This time, unlike my last visit in May, I opened the office doors myself, grabbing the handles without flinching. I pushed the elevator buttons. I sat in the waiting room chairs without thinking about Lysoling myself when I got home. I realized that contamination OCD was finally letting me go.

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Happy Birthday, Dreaming Panda

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This week marks the one-year anniversary of my blog. To say it’s been an incredible year doesn’t even begin to describe it. I’ve come such a long way since I first started writing about this difficult journey—and so has this blog…

Last June, I’d hit rockbottom. I was in such bad shape and declining so much that I thought I’d die. Although I was otherwise dysfunctional to the point of not being able to walk, not eating, and not being able to speak coherently, I was able to write. In the countless hours my family spent researching PANDAS/PANS on the internet, they’d never found a blog written by a PANS patient. I thought maybe I could change that. I hoped that maybe by sharing my experiences, I could help someone else going through the same thing. So I started a blog.

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Let It Roll: OCD & Trail Biking

Recently, I’ve taken up trail biking, and strangely, there are a lot of parallels between becoming a trail biker and overcoming OCD…

Ever since last summer, I’ve been apprehensive about getting on a bike, considering that my legs used to give out on me frequently when I walked. If one of these attacks happened as I rode a bike at 20 mph down a road, I could get seriously hurt.

But this week, I got back on my bike anyway and rolled into the woods, following a friend of mine who’s an avid trail biker.

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The Day I Outran My Illness

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There are some moments in life that you can never forget—moments when your whole world is turned upside, for better or worse. Living with PANS, a disease that sets in overnight and flares up in the same way, I’ve had more than my fair share of those life-changing moments.

However, another such moment (albeit a more positive one) happened on Saturday when I finished my first half-marathon: 13.1 slow, arduous miles.

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IVIG: Four-Month Update!

It’s been over four months since I had IVIG—and six months since the abrupt onset of my tics and other movement problems. On the whole, I’d say I’m much better.  I’ve even started tapering off the steroids.  The way I put it with my family is that I finally feel like a person again.  I’m almost back to where I was before I started flaring two years ago—with the addition of tics, some walking issues, and hypersomnia.  It’s not all forward progress, though.  It’s really more of a two-steps-forward-one-step back process.

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