I’m a HelloGiggler now!

I ate a lot of ice cream this week. In case you were wondering. Like…an obscene amount. I am disgusting. I’m blaming yoga. Because it’s never my fault.

That has nothing to do with why I am writing this post, but I thought I would share in case you also ate a whole 2L tub of ice cream this week and you weren’t sure if you could tell anybody in fear of them not understanding. Just know that I get you.

I am writing this post because I wanted to share with you guys some great Lisa news! I just had my first piece published on HelloGiggles on Saturday. I’m a HelloGiggler now! (Please sing that sentence in the tune of “I’m a big kid now” from the diaper commercials…thanks).
I was extremely nervous about this HelloGiggles piece because I’m not used to writing serious things about chronic illness. I’m used to writing about the silly moments. Sure, it always gets personal, but I prefer to Chandler Bing every situation and hide behind a thick wall of humour. For this piece I didn’t do that. I gave everyone a very real account of what it is like to gain weight from medication. It’s hard to joke about that one, because it was such a tough time for me. I felt like an entirely different person, I looked like an entirely different person, I wanted to eat 3 whole turkeys a day, and I had no self-esteem. I am so incredibly lucky that I’m not on steroids at the moment, and I am starting to get control of my weight and look like the old Lisa again, but not everyone is as lucky as me. And I learned that after publishing this story more than I’ve ever learned that before. The responses were overwhelming. So many people took to the HelloGiggles Facebook page to talk about their own struggle with this issue and to mention that they didn’t think anyone else actually felt this way. I am so grateful that I sent this story to HG now, because I can’t imagine someone going through that and not knowing that other people out there understand and can offer support.

I have been getting tons of emails, Twitter messages and FB comments thanking me for writing my article. I plan on responding to all of them, but in the meantime, if you came to my blog after reading that article please know that you aren’t alone; there is a whole community of people out there in the same or a very similar boat who you can turn to if you need to talk about the shitty side effects of your medication or anything else related to having a chronic illness. There are lots of people out there who also scoff when someone tells them “but you’re too young to be sick,” or “but you don’t LOOK sick!” You are not alone. Period. There is help and if you need help and can’t find it just email me and I will send you in the right directions.

Without further adieu, if you haven’t already read my article and you are interested in doing so, you can find it HERE.

Thanks for all of the support, people!

And because it’s Monday and Mondays can be hard, you should watch this:

That’s exactly how I feel on a Monday morning.