I was honoured to be asked to tell my story for publication on the Becoming Visible 4 ME website. This has 'gone live' today and you can find the article HERE.
After some deliberation, I decided to tell my story from a personal point of view rather than by focusing upon a male perspective of chronic illness. Mine is the first story published on the site by a male but I wanted to try to demonstrate that we are just the same as women when it comes to dealing with such massive life changes. The emotional aspects, rather than the physical ones, have primarily been the focus of my blogging and I wanted to stay true to that.
My story was written prior to moving to my new apartment so it is already somewhat out of date. However, it does capture that post-acceptance period of my life where I finally moved forward and decided I must carve out a life alongside my condition.
The site is the brainchild of Dominique, whom many of you may know from the ME online community. The aim of the site is to tell people's stories, one at a time (monthly) in the hope that the stories are shared and a wider knowledge of what living with ME is like can be provided. Dominique is a formidable woman who has herself battled serious illness and who continues to be a driving force within the community with her website and various other projects. I am deeply grateful to now be able to also call her a friend. Please share the great work she is doing by posting the link on Facebook etc.
Take care,
Barry
