Sincerely,
I have trained in many painting mediums but now work primarily in acrylic, watercolor, pen and ink ,and tempera.
I would love to hear from you! Thank you!
I have added some fims below for anyone interested in learning about ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
For far too many years this disease has been neglected leaving people with ME/CFS in a horrible state of Limbo. People not only suffer from the terrible illness, which utterly destroys lives, but are also left dealing with so much ignorance and misunderstanding by Medical Professionals, Friends, Family and the General Public. In the worst cases people with ME/CFS are completely abandoned. Many end up taking their own lives. Many are living in abject poverty. Many are suffering from abuse do to ignorance, and many more, become homeless. Now we have a similar state of affairs with the covid "Long-Haulers", and it must be addressed.
Too many people are struck down each year with this debilitaing and horribly misunderstood disease. How many more need to die from it, or as a consequence of feeling there is no way out, but suicide? I am posting this as I lost my very dear friend Mark last year. He took his own life, but it is my belief , the disease took him down. I have spoken to too many people suffering the ravishes of this disease. This disease causes multiple problems and additional ailments over time. I have heard many who have had cancer and state they prefer it to ME/CFS. The medical treatments were far better and there was far more compassion and understanding in their treatment. These are all things that often are missing for a person with ME/CFS. I have actually heard someone with stage 4 cancer state that she cried with relief when she got her cancer diagnosis because there would actually be an end to the suffering she had lived with for so long as a person with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. I have thought long and hard about posting these videos and making this statement, but I feel I must. If it helps one person to either learn about the illness, (or know that they are not alone), then I have said my peace. If you watch any of these movies, I thank you with all of my heart. If you are just interested in a general idea of what ME/CFS There is a diagram below It is overly simplified, but fairly decent in giving a generalized description of the illness. Note that it by no means describes all the symptoms and problems this illness can cause, but it is a far better 'quick overview' ,than most that I have seen.
Jessica
This is such a bizarre illness. I can’t believe so many more people are getting indoctrinated into this crazy existence. From the stories I have heard and the research being done, Covid Long Haulers sound eerily similar to the Shitty Myalgic Encephalomylitis Club. I feel so sorry for all these people. I hope they are helped more than I was ,or pretty much everyone, I have known who has (or past tense, had ME/CFS and is no longer with us due to the disease directly killing them, or indirectly, but nonetheless, killing them= suicides. So many have died rom heart disease and cancers and other co-morbidities that stemmed from the trunk of ME/CFS. (I bet Long Covid, will sadly, be the same).
The medical community at large has been a huge dissapointment and more often than not, made things worse especially in the first few years when I could’ve regained back more of my health. And yet, My story is very typical…textbook really. I hear it played out over and over in the ME/CFS (and now Covid Long-Haulers), community.
If you know someone who has Long Covid or ME/CFS (which are close relatives if not the same damn disease), please treat them with kindness, never call them lazy. Also understand that the disease affects the brain, so they will not act as they used to…Maybe not easy for you to understand that, but imagine if you were the one who woke up one day with a brain that seems to have been rewired into a big messy ineffective jumble of wires…most of us have sudden onset to the illness ME/CFS….
....mine was Jan 15, 2006, the day my whole life changed forever. I went to the Emergency Room, (long story, lets just say they didn’t figure it out really, I had pluerisy and dangerously low potassium, I had a saline drip and after awhile was sent home to rest and eat bananas and take potassium supplements). I went home and I did not recover. Ever. The ER excursion happened after I had had the worst flu of my life, gastrointestinal and upper respiratory. It had been spreading like wildfire through my sons school. It was right around the time of SARS, so I wonder now?…was it a coronavirus? , could it really be that simple??
I have never understood how a disease could basically throw a grenade on my life, but that it did! So, Trust me when I say You would not want to hang out in our bodies or live our existence for even a few days...(The lucky people with ME/CFS can still eat some food, walk, and leave the house for short excursions…(I guess those videos above show it best ) even the ‘mild’ cases are extremely life altering (and not in a good way).
If you are looking for a cause, this one is certainly that! (I love animal charities and anything for children too), but this gets VERY little attention and there is MASSIVE suffering and Great need here. (and children are effected as well, directly due to the disease and also indirectly due to parents, usually moms, being ill). The Open Medicine Foundation, and/or Simmaron Research are both good places to donate.
Even If you can’t donate, treating people with Long Covid and ME/CFS with kindness and a little empathy goes a long way. Sometimes the misunderstanding with these diseases and the cruel comments and treatment by people is almost worse than the disease itself, (at least that has been my, and others with ME/CFS experience. Thank you with all of my heart if you read this far.