I was just looking at the statistics of this site, and the stories about the stroke and Cushing’s have been viewed more than any other. Which is understandable, given that that was the idea of this website. But when you read the stories, and look at the photos, all I am is a patient, another body.
I have had some wonderful doctors who ask me about my studies, my job and my life. They try and find out a little bit about me as a person before they treat me as a patient, and it just occurred to me that for anyone who came across this site by searching for stroke or Cushing’s, or by clicking through my profile on Cushing’s forums or blogs, I might still just be a Cushing’s patient.
I’m not that. None of us are. For every person out there who has gone through Cushing’s or a stroke, there is probably a world of family, friends, interests, likes, dislikes, studies, careers. There are entire lives out there that are changed by stroke and Cushing’s.
I find it really strange to go into detail about my life, because discussing the medical aspects seem a lot less personal – in that situation, I choose to be a patient and not a person.
In reality, though, I’m a person. I’m not defined by Cushing’s or stroke, and for anyone who just looks at me without knowing a thing about my medical history, they wouldn’t be able to see anything of the past year. I am actually a geographer, with dreams of changing the world, a love of chick lit, an old interest in bookshops and a new interest in health systems. I love being busy, dislike lazy people, and wish that money and time weren’t a barrier to seeing and understanding so much of our world. I talk too much, have a knack for breaking computers, and the thing that broke me in the past year wasn’t Cushing’s or the stroke, but it was when the most important person in my life decided he didn’t want me in his.
I have plans for next year and the following years that I’m really excited about, and I hope that they work out, but if they don’t, that’s okay. And that’s probably the most important thing this part year has taught me. That you don’t always control what happens in life, but you control what you do with everything that life throws at you. And you will deal with it, because it’s a lot more fun and useful to make lemonade out of lemons than to cry over spilt milk (ah, mixing metaphors).
