LIFE PLANS AND MONTHLY REMINDERS

Posted on February 3, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged baby, children, chronic illness, disabilities, disability, eds, ehlers danlos syndrome, featured, genetics, health, invisible disabilities, invisible illness, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, medical negligence, medicine, Migraines, parenthood, period, personal, Perspectives, relantionship, studies, treatment, university.

by Alice Thomson

Ten years ago, I was in my first year of University at Aberdeen, studying to be a Primary school teacher. It was a daunting, but exciting time. I had plans for my future and much to look forward to. I decided I wanted to be a teacher to help learners, like myself, that struggle in the education system. After achieving my degree, I planned to establish myself as a teacher before going back to University to gain the qualifications I needed to become a Special Educational Needs teacher.

I had always wanted a family and so my plan was to enjoy my early 20s, find someone I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, get married and have two children. A teaching career seemed like a good match with the challenges of having a family. In my mind I had it all worked out. I’d decided that by around my 30th birthday I would probably have given birth to my last child. I’m going to have my 30th birthday this year, and my life didn’t go to plan.Continue Reading

SURVIVAL

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged chronic illness, chronic pain, disability, disabled, ehlers danlos syndrome, mental health, Perspectives.

by Alice Thomson

When I think of the word survival, it conjures up many images. More often than not it’s an image of a character in a horror, thriller or zombie narrative, where the individual does everything physically or logically possible to live through the trauma and make it to the end of the film, or to the next episode. A person’s strength of will to keep living is what drives them to survive the zombie apocalypse, murderer or demon. These surviving characters are always physically and/or mentally strong, or become so quickly. Their motive for survival? They have future plans, information they must pass on, people that rely on them – in some way, their life holds value. Once this traumatic episode is over, they can get back to those lives. They survive in order to find peace, joy, fulfilment, happiness. To reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

MY RELATIONSHIP

Posted on September 2, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged chronic illness, chronic pain, disability, eds, ehlers danlos syndrome, inflammatory pain, invisible disabilities, musculoskeletal pain, nerve pain, pain, Perspectives, therapy.

by Alice Thomson

CW: mentions of death

Pain. Nearly all of us experience it. We all have a relationship with pain, even if we’re not aware of it. Pain allows us to avoid or reduce injury – but sometimes these signals to the brain that are supposed to help can instead go very wrong.

IF I WERE IN CHARGE…

Posted on August 5, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged chronic illness, disability, education, mental health, mental illness, Perspectives, prime minister, PTSD, spoons, suicide, teaching crisis, UK government, uk politics, wellbeing services.

by Alice Thomson

Let’s be honest – I’m sure if I was actually in charge of the country I’d be rubbish at it. The role of Prime Minister does not appeal to me. It’s not exactly your 9-to-5 kind of job. The stress and responsibilities you’d have, not to mention the impossible decisions you’d have to make, would turn me into a quivering wreck. And that’s before your character is picked apart by the media. As a disabled person, roles like that of PM are particularly inaccessible. Trying to live your own life with chronic pain and minimum spoons is hard enough without attempting to run a county as well. That doesn’t mean I can’t spent time on trying to imagine a better world. And I reckon I have a few good ideas from such imaginings – though everything is always much easier from the comfort of your armchair. Sports fans shouting advice through their televisions at some of best trained athletes in the world comes to mind.

THE LARGE MINORITY

Posted on July 22, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged access to work, austerity, chronic illness, disability, disabled, eds, ehlers danlos syndrome, invisible disability, invisible illness, minority groups, Perspectives, representation.

by Alice Thomson

The term “minority group” invokes the image of a very small percentage of people. When I was a teacher, I had a minority group in my classroom consisting of a small number of children who needed different support and teaching methods to the rest of the class. In an ideal world, every child’s individual needs would have been met, but this was not the case. Time, resources, space – these resources affect the treatment of minority groups on a much larger national scale as well. The ‘majority’ have their needs met, while smaller groups who don’t fit into the majority box are often left behind, mistreated, or ignored.

UNDATEABLE?

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged abusive relationships, chronic illness, dating, disability, disabled, ehlers danlos syndrome, invisible illness, Perspectives, relationships.

by Alice Thomson

Dating has changed a lot over the last few decades. In the time before dating apps, people would meet at work, in cafés, or via friends or family. It may seem like a simpler time, but it did mean that the variety of people for you to meet was limited to your direct community. I think you would be lucky to find ‘the one’ when there is a world full of possible ‘ones’. As Tim Minchin so eloquently said, “If I didn’t have you, I’d probably have somebody else”.

WEE ALL HAVE TO GO

Posted on June 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged accessibility, accessible toilets, Brexit, chronic illness, crohn's disease, disability, disabled, ehlers danlos syndrome, gender neutral toilets, ibs, invisible disability, invisibly disabilities, Perspectives, toilets.

by Alice Thomson

There are so many terrible things going on in the world. I could talk about any number of them – but everybody else is already doing so. What has always been my concern about things like Brexit is that the aspects of life that were already difficult are going to be forgotten in favour of this new event. So many people are going to be left behind as the government puts all of its focus on negotiating our split from the EU. And so my article today is not going to be about any of the ‘big issues’. It’s going to be about a very small one. It’s one that really gets my goat, but it’s often forgotten. Well – not just forgotten. It doesn’t even register to most people.

I’m talking about toilets.

RUNNING AWAY

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged chronic illness, chronic pain, disability, dyslexia, eds, ehlers danlos syndrome, Liberal Democrats, mental illness, norfolk, norwich, Perspectives, primary school, recovery, teaching.

by Alice Thomson

I moved to Norwich five years ago. Well, actually, I didn’t move to Norwich at all. When I relay the story of how I came to live in Norwich I always jokingly say I came to visit and never left. For me Norwich was great – love at first sight. The reason why I came to stay in Norwich was a lot less great and a lot more painful. I came down for a week to visit my mother and celebrate our birthdays (they’re six days apart). I was living in Aberdeen at the time, so at the end of the week my mum drove me up to the Scottish border as planned. She was going to see friends, and I was going to carry on my journey from there. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. The prospect of continuing my journey filled me with crippling fear. It became obvious to my mum that I couldn’t go home. And so we turned around, and came back to Norwich. I ran away.

FINDING YOUR THERAPY

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Community, Perspectives and tagged chronic illness, collagen, Community, cryochambers, cryotherapy, disability, ehlers danlos syndrome, mitochondrial, norfolk, norwich, Perspectives, the skin therapy clinic, Thorpe St Andrew.

by Alice Thomson

When it comes to health treatments, people like myself will try almost anything once. And I have. Living with chronic pain, fatigue and joint instability as I am, I will do many things to seek relief from my symptoms. I’ve tried reflexology, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, medication, TENS, reiki, acupuncture, chiropractics; the list goes on. All of them have their merits, but they don’t always have the desired effect.

BODIES

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged ableism, body image, body shaming, chronic illness, disability, dyslexia, eds, ehlers danlos syndrome, invisible disability, invisible illness, march for europe, Perspectives.

by Alice Thomson

I’ve been thinking a lot about my body recently. In the last month I’ve been pushing it pretty hard, so I have a lot to reflect on. I talked about going to the March for Europe in my last article, and the preparation I put in beforehand to make sure my body would survive. Since the march, I have been doing a lot of walking and swimming. This brings feelings of terror and excitement. I fear I will dislocate and put myself back in my wheelchair. But I’m excited to feel the freedom my body hasn’t experienced in over five years. My current mission is to make myself stronger, stable, and resilient.

chronic illness

LIFE PLANS AND MONTHLY REMINDERS

SURVIVAL

MY RELATIONSHIP

IF I WERE IN CHARGE…

THE LARGE MINORITY

UNDATEABLE?

WEE ALL HAVE TO GO

RUNNING AWAY

FINDING YOUR THERAPY

BODIES

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