Sick, I Swear

Not Behind, Just More Obstacles With Alli Rose

• Kaitlyn Rohde

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Alli Rose is a POTS, endo, and Graves disease girly who had her whole life flipped upside down at 21. We're talking diagnoses, dropping out, social media career, dating while disabled, and unlearning everything society taught us about productivity. 

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Happy healing, babe

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Welcome And Meet Allie Rose

SPEAKER_01

Hello, y'all. Welcome back to another episode of Sick I Swear. I am your host, Caitlin Roadie. And first of all, whether you're listening in the car, on a walk, doing the dishes, laid up in bed, in the hospital, whatever it is that you're doing, genuinely thank you for being here and being a part of these conversations. Nonetheless, we have Allie Rose. She's a POTS endometriosis and graves girly. She was going to school for art education, wanted to be an art teacher when her illnesses kind of derailed her into content creation. To start off, I kind of like to go through diagnosis and a little bit of your health journey to kind of get us an idea of who you are and how this all came

Early Symptoms And Fainting

SPEAKER_01

about.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so I've kind of just been like weirdly sick my entire life. As a kid, I was always getting some kind of cold or stomach bug. My immune system

Period Pain And Endometriosis Diagnosis

SPEAKER_02

was just not the best. I had like all these like food allergies. I think I was allergic to grass when I was little. Like I would go out play in the grass and like be itchy.

SPEAKER_01

Brutal.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. I was just like really sick all the time. And I would just like pass out randomly. Like as a kid. They just thought it was, they just thought I would grow out of it or I was just, you know, playing too hard or something. They were like, yeah, she's fine. Um, because you know, as a kid, you just kind of are resilien resilient.

SPEAKER_01

You don't know what's going on. You can't properly vocalize what you think is going on, and you have no idea what's normal and what's not, too.

SPEAKER_02

Right, exactly. And so they were just like, well, she's okay. Like, because I would pass out and just pop right back up, act like nothing happened, you know. And then I think when I was 12, I uh started getting really bad periods, and I had them until I was about 19, was when I was like, you know what, this is getting much worse. I decided to go to the doctor, and you know, we tried birth control, we tried, I was actually in menopause at 19, like chemically. What? Yeah, so they gave me this pill, it was called Orlissa. No, okay, I've been on that too. Yeah, and basically, like it kind of puts you in like chemical menopause.

SPEAKER_01

Is that what it does? They didn't tell me it did that. Yeah, that's what they told me. So interesting. Okay, so that was for your really bad periods, right? But not anything like endo-related.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that was before I got diagnosed with endo. Okay, because they weren't sure yet, which Orlissa did nothing for me. Like, I still got my period the entire time. And so then finally I was like, hey, nothing's working. And so they did the um diagnostic lap for endo. They found it on I think on my fallopian tube. Okay. And then in my pelvic cavity.

SPEAKER_01

Did you do so? Did you do the excision surgery then? Were they able to clear it up? I don't remember if it was the excision or if it was a different kind.

SPEAKER_02

I just know I felt a lot better afterwards. Okay. But they did remove it somehow. I don't know if it was like the lasers or the incision. I don't, it was a week ago. Yeah. And then I'm trying to think. Yeah, after that, I felt great. Like the surgery cleared up for me for about six months. Like I had like no pain. Trying to remember the timeline here.

SPEAKER_01

I know. It's at a point, everything just kind of runs together, and you cannot figure it. Yes, I totally get that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. At that point, I think I was only passing out on my period, which I thought was because of the endometriosis.

POTS Testing And Life Disruption

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Like six to eight months later, I started passing out, like not on my period. And I was like, this is odd. Um, and I started having like more tachycardia, more chest pain, and I went to the doctor. Oh, did I say my diagnoses at the beginning? I don't think I did. No, but you can now. Or whatever. Or whenever. Okay, so I have POTS, endometriosis, and grapes disease. Those are my big three diagnoses. Yeah. And so I was passing out randomly. I had like tachycardia, chest pain, my primary at the time. We did a bunch of testing, blood work. We couldn't figure out what was going on. Eventually, she sent me to the cardiologist. I remember being in the cardiologist's office, and the nurses were like, you know, looking at my blood pressure and my heart rate, and they were like, What do you got going on? You have the weirdest heart rate ever. And I was like, I don't know. I thought this was normal. Right. And so then I got diagnosed with POTS. They did like a tilt table test. I would say about six months after my POTS diagnosis, it started getting much worse. I had to stop driving. I couldn't work, I had to like move out of my apartment. We had no idea why.

Graves Disease And Heart Scares

SPEAKER_02

Like it just randomly got worse. Your POTS specifically. Yeah. My POTS symptoms is what we thought it was. Six months after that, we finally realized that my thyroid was messed up. Oh. And I was like, great, more stuff going on. How did they not figure that out right away? I don't know. Cause I went back and checked my blood work from when I first got diagnosed with POTS. My thyroid was like borderline. So it was like not enough to um be concerned at that point. Yeah. They were like, well, this is weird, but it's not anything unusual. Yeah. Which being borderline kind of still gives you symptoms, which is probably why my POTS got worse in that moment. Yeah, like I remember I lost a bunch of weight, my tachycardia got so much worse, and then you know, they finally drank my thyroid. Originally they misdiagnosed me with hypothyroidism, which is like Hashimoto's. Luckily, like we caught it and they were like, no, no, you actually have hyperthyroidism. So like an overactive thyroid.

SPEAKER_01

So was that causing your POT symptoms to be worse then?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Cause like POTS and Graves disease both affect your heart, like in different ways.

SPEAKER_01

The symptomatically, your heart is affected, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Graves disease, like it directly affects your heart, so it can cause like arrhythmias and stuff. Okay. But POTS is just kind of like indirectly affecting your heart. More of like a nervous system thing. Finally, like I think I had like an ER trip where my heart rate just wouldn't go down. They had to give me a denison, which is not fun. What is that? It's to check to see if you have SVT. What is that? Like um superventricular tachycardia.

SPEAKER_01

Do we know how that's different than POTS?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. I've never heard of this. I know it's just like um the way that your heart beats. It's like the top part is beating more than the bottom or something. I don't, I'm not sure. I don't think I have there's a disconnect. Right. Yeah, like I think it's some kind of arrhythmia or something. Don't quote me on that. Yeah. I don't think I had SVT because they like administered the drug to see if I had it, and then I did it. So I was good. But it was a weird experience for sure. The drug? Yeah. What does it do? They put in your IV, and then for four seconds, it like restarts your heart. That's what they told me it did. They were like, oh, it's gonna restart your heart. I don't know. It just feels like you're going over a roller coaster for like four seconds. No doctor here. I don't I don't know. I'm just like, that's what they told me. It was going on. They got me into an endocrinologist really soon after that. And then I took I started taking a medication for my Graves disease, and that made it a ton better. It was called methemazole. And then it's just kind of been like a roller coaster ever since of like my thyroid being overactive and then underactive and then in the middle, and then do you feel like it's managed at this point, or is it?

SPEAKER_01

I mean, obviously chronic illnesses, it's different day to day, but do you feel like overall you have a pretty good sense of managing or at least what to do for managing?

SPEAKER_02

I think so. I think I do feel like I'm getting better really slowly.

SPEAKER_01

So for

Graves Symptoms And Daily Management

SPEAKER_01

Graves disease, what exactly are the symptoms other than heart?

SPEAKER_02

So I think other symptoms are like weight loss, like specifically like muscle loss, um, because your thyroid is like sped up, so your metabolism speeds up. You just burn more calories at rest. I experienced a lot of like muscle aches and like joint aches from it. Um, I experienced a lot of migraines from it. Because it's kind of hard to like know which one's which at this point. Do you get brain fog too? I do get brain fog. It's like one of the worst. I experienced a lot of emotional symptoms from Graves' disease personally. Oh, okay. Because if when you have a hormonal disorder, it can really impact your mood. Someone told me the other day that the hormone levels of someone with Graves disease, like when they're in hyperthyroidism, is similar to someone that's pregnant. Like a lot of irritability, like I just get really irritated, a lot of anxiety. I have like a lot of like skin issues from I don't see, I'm not sure which one if it if I'm just having skin issues from my eczema. I don't, it's just something I've never experienced before. It's just very odd. Like I get low-grade fevers. It's just it, I just kind of feel like I have the flu all the time.

SPEAKER_01

Damn. So just kind of run down. And do you like chronic fatigue? Yeah. Yeah. That's a fun one.

Going Viral And Chronic Illness Content

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so you post your journey online. Was there a moment where you're like, okay, I need to share my journey? I want to get this out. I want to spread more awareness. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Because I lost my job when I got sick and I moved back with my family. And when I got sick, I was 21. So I was like, you know, going to school and working part-time and trying to be, you know, trying to graduate college. And so I was kind of just stuck at home. I was just kind of bored and I was like, well, I'll just make some TikToks. And then one of my TikToks about having pots really blew up. It got like two million views or something. Oh shit. I had a bunch of people just asking me about pots, like what kind of symptoms I had. This was back in like early 2024. Just a bunch of people like DMing me, DMing me and being like, How did you get diagnosed? I have these symptoms, like I'm I'm struggling. And so I was like, I was just making a bunch of videos, like answering all these people's questions and getting some followers. Then I started having like a lot of mutuals with the same diagnoses as me. And I was like, there's like a whole community on TikTok of people who have the exact same issues I do. Like, I don't feel so alone. I feel like I'm helping people, but I'm also helping myself figure this stuff out. And it just kind of went from there. And now I do it pretty much full-time.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I feel like a lot of people find that social media is a good way to try to create that source of income because it's so hard to hold a full-time job and because we're all over the place with how we feel. And so with social media, it's you know, you're your own boss.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's one of the uh benefits for me was like I can post as much or as little as I want. I don't have like even when I work with brands, like most of the time they're very lenient about me being sick or anything. I would love for this to be like my career. Career, it's so fun.

SPEAKER_01

It's just it is a lot of work, especially if you're sick. Dude, it is so much work to put content out.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Yeah, like people are like, well, social media is so easy, you know. No, it's not. You just post it. It's like it's easy if you're like already famous, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yep. Because you have like a huge team behind you, like you're doing this yourself

Dropping Out And Rebuilding A Future

SPEAKER_01

exactly until hopefully you can have more help with it. What were you going to school for? I was going for art education.

SPEAKER_02

I'm an art teacher. Oh my god. How far did you get? Did you graduate? No, I did not. I had to drop out because of my health issues. How was that emotionally? It was really hard because, you know, it was it's it was scary too because I was like, well, what am I gonna do with my future? You know, even if I got better, I don't think I could, you know, handle being a teacher. That's a lot of physical work, you know.

SPEAKER_01

And you like you have to show up. It's a lot of time like where you have to show up. It's not necessarily a flexible job that can accommodate your illness.

SPEAKER_02

Right, exactly. I worked at a daycare because I love working with kids. And then I was like a paraeducator, and then I worked, like I did like lunch duty and stuff like that, and it's just like a lot of walking. It's physically hard on your body, and I was like, Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I can't finish my degree. In some ways, I am grateful, I think, for be being sick at that age because now what I'm doing is much more making me much more happy than before. This is like my niche. I think I've I literally figured it out.

SPEAKER_01

Unfortunately, fortunately, like I feel that I feel that too. Because my life was completely, I was a cosmetologist prior to getting sick, and you know, I I loved it, but I wasn't like obsessed with it. But it kind of, yeah, life kind of brings you in weird circles and shoots you onto the right track that you're supposed to be on. So we just gotta trust in it, and I think it's a really important thing that we're doing.

SPEAKER_02

I've met so many really nice people on social media. Some like are my really good friends, and unfortunately they're all across the country. I know.

SPEAKER_01

But like that's kind of nice in a sense of if you're able to travel or whatever, there's a place to go.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I would love to go travel and see some of my friends one day. Yeah.

Travel With POTS And Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_02

One of my goals.

SPEAKER_01

Do you feel like you're not at a point where you're able to travel?

SPEAKER_02

I can like ride in a car. Okay. I just I don't think I do want to see if I can get on a plane one day, but I just feel like that would make me feel sick.

SPEAKER_01

I'm a huge traveler. Like that has always been something that I've loved. And since getting diagnosed with POTS, that was like a big thing that I was terrified of doing. I felt like I had to build up a tolerance, no lie. Like, I the first couple of times I was flying, I was literally in the bathroom, like, you know, paper bag, like breathing into a paper bag, like trying to regulate. And I was like tipping back electrolytes, like it was my job. But I feel like I don't know if I've just gained tolerance or I have been feeling a little bit better. I don't know. But I'm definitely grateful that I've been able to get to that place. But I I feel you on that. Like it is a scary territory to step into without knowing how your body's gonna react.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. And for me, even just kind of like running in the car makes me sick sometimes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I have to be for the most part, like in the front seat, probably popping so far. Traveling is hard, but I don't know. That was part of my identity, and I didn't want chronic illness to be able to take part of that from me. So I in a way kind of like push myself to do it because it is something that was such a big part of my life prior. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. I think there's some things where I'm like, I will I'm okay with experiencing the consequences of my chronic illness for this, you know. It's like oh yeah. I think people that are ill don't understand that like when your body doesn't work, like you physically can't do things, like you can't push through it, you know. They think when you're sick, it's just like a cold. It's like, oh, I can go to work when I have a cold, that's fine. You know, your body is malfunctioning, you cannot function correctly when it's happening like that. And a lot of people don't understand that. I think if you haven't gone through, I it really is something like if you haven't gone through it, you're just not gonna understand it. Yeah. I can't just push through it and go drive a car. It's like my life could be in danger, you know. I do have consequences if I do certain things, and that's that's something that they just don't understand.

SPEAKER_01

For us, when we get a cold, it's the cold on top of getting hit by like 13 semis. Like it's just it's different, and it takes a lot longer to recover, and usually our symptoms are worse. But also like our baseline feels like a flu a lot of the time, and we just like build up this tolerance

Why People Misunderstand Chronic Illness

SPEAKER_01

or ability to just push through the day because this is our normal. And I think that is something that is really hard for people to wrap their head around. And as more people are talking about it, hopefully it becomes more normalized.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think it's also important for non-chronically ill people to like listen to people who are chronically ill because that's gonna be them one day. Like they're going to get sick at one day or another. Like it might might as well educate yourself on it now and understand now.

SPEAKER_01

Like we never thought it was gonna happen to us. Right, exactly. And disability is one of the most universal experiences, whether it's gonna be you or somebody that you love, or if you make it to the grand old age of whatever it is that you become more disabled and chronically ill. I think everyone's going to experience it firsthand in some sort of capacity. And I think that that's something that people don't yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think I saw a statistic the other day that was like over 90% of people over the age of 65 will become disabled or something like that. That sounds right, yeah. Yeah, like it's it was like that's like everybody.

SPEAKER_01

You also had a video about how ableism

Ableism And The Curb Cut Effect

SPEAKER_01

affects everyone. Can you explain that more?

SPEAKER_02

Disability is one of the only marginalized groups that everyone is going to join at some point or another. You know, systematic ableism, I think it's like, like, for example, the curb cut theory. Have you heard of that? No, explain. So, like, you know how curbs have that little ramp on them, right? Yeah. That goes onto the sidewalk from the road. That was originally made for people with wheelchairs, right? So they could get onto the sidewalk. Well, now people with suitcases, people with strollers, people with like those little roly things to put packages on. All of those people benefit benefit from that curb cut, right? And so when we focus on disabled people and their needs, it benefits everybody. Things like free health care, things like, you know, better public transportation, better accessibility for public transportation, you know, things that would benefit disabled people benefit everybody. And so when we are excluding disabled people from society, it hurts everybody as well. Because everyone can become disabled again, but you can even be temporarily disabled. You know, you can get sick and be disabled for a couple months. And so when we focus on helping people with disabilities and when we focus on accessibility, that does help the entire society. And that's what people don't understand. Elevators are another example. Yeah. That was made for wheelchair users to get up the stairs, but it's like everyone loves el elevators.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, especially when you're going up 30 floors. One thing that you talk about online is being sick and gay.

Being Queer And Disabled In The South

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. How is it to be a part of like two marginalized communities that society kind of um doesn't accept the way that they should?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think they go together because I think there's a big population of chronically ill people that are also LGBT. It's definitely made my life a lot more challenging, I think, because you know, being a lesbian, there's really not a lot of queer women around. And so, like one of the like stereotypes for being gay is like long distance relationships or like traveling a lot to go visit somebody you're dating. And that's very true for me. When you're sick, you can't do a lot of traveling. So, like that makes it much more harder. You know, I live in a small town in the south. Where are you at? I live in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. I'm like right in between Lexington and Louisville.

SPEAKER_01

You're close as hell.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, if you're ever in Nashville, let a girl know. South red having marginalized communities that don't necessarily um thrive in the south.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, just being in a small town in the south, there's not a lot of queer people around, and it's like there's not a lot of acceptance around it. And so it just makes dating so much harder than it was before I got really sick. I've had really understanding people when dating, like going on dates and like the people being really understanding about my chronic illness, which I think is really good. Again, it just it makes dating just 10 times more complicated. It's already hard.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And then to add that on, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think even just building a community is really hard when you're sick too. Like again, ableism exists and people not understanding your illness, making friends is hard, dating is hard. Just like building any kind of community, building any kind of connections after becoming sick has been so difficult.

SPEAKER_01

Do you feel like systematic ableism shows up differently, being queer and disabled?

SPEAKER_02

I think in a way, but I think in a in an also a like more positive life, I think queer people are more likely to be to understand ableism on that level. Because a lot of them understand like how being queer affects your life. And I think a lot of them understand that being disabled also like affects your life in that way. Um like just perhaps a little bit more empathy installed in. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Cause I've never dated men before, so I'm not sure how that works.

SPEAKER_01

Um, yeah. It's a ride, it's a trip. If I could be a lesbian, I would be. Like, I really wish I'm like this close to just saying fuck it and just trying because it's it's bad.

SPEAKER_02

In that way, it is a lot better dating because like people are more understanding about your chronic illness. And it's like I've I never had anyone say anything to me that was like ill toward it, like, I don't want to date you because you're sick, you know? It's all the other factors that make it hard. It's like not the people, like I've had some really nice people, really genuine people that I've dated, but it's like the homophobia and the lack of queer people in my area, and like, yeah, again, just like the circumstances.

Comparison And Internalised Ableism

SPEAKER_01

What would what advice would you give to somebody who's experiencing being a part of a marginalized community?

SPEAKER_02

One of the biggest things I've had a hard time coming to terms with lately is like, and I think this is advice to myself too, is like you can't compare yourself to people who aren't in those groups. It's like I compare myself to able-bodied straight people all the time. And like how their lives are like they're just doing so much better than I am. Like they're getting married and you know, having kids, and they have a house, and they have a career. And I'm like, why am I not there yet? And it's like, oh, I have more obstacles than they do right now.

SPEAKER_01

I that's one of the biggest things I talk about in therapy as well. My therapist just says, and I think this is a common phrase that. That comparison is the thief of joy. And that stands true 100% because it's so easy to get lost in the comparison cycle, especially when you don't live the quote unquote normal life that other people are living, or you want to be somewhere else in life than where you are now. And um, I think it's just really important to kind of take a step back and bring the lens out and realize that you are exactly where you're supposed to be, regardless of what you think. And I guess that that kind of grounds me, but I get lost in that cycle all the damn time too. It's really easy.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's like because I always grew up with like um, if I want something, I'm gonna get it. Like no excuses. Determined. Right, exactly. I kind of get down on myself when I can't do something because it's like I've always been able to achieve all my goals. Well, I can't compare myself to other people who don't have these obstacles in the way. And like you said, comparison is a deep joy. It's like, yeah, even though we're living two different lives, like I can still be happy with where I am now, with you know, I feel I feel like I have a lot of pride in being disabled and being gay. You know, I think it's important to recognize that like it is a lot harder, like not in like an interbalized internalized ableism way, like, but like it's just it's genuinely there's just more obstacles. It's just a fact, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Do you find yourself doing internal ableism often? Um or have you gotten good at kind of knocking that out?

SPEAKER_02

I try my best, but I think it's always just kind of there in the back of my mind, you know, like especially it really was hard when I first got sick. I would always tell myself I was lazy because you go from like working 40 hours a week and doing so many to just sitting at home doing nothing, you know. And I was like, oh my god, I need to be doing something. What's it called? Like toxic productivity. Yep. That was a big thing for me, was like I was always productive, and then now I just have to sit here and do nothing. And so I was like, Well, I'm just kind of I'm lazy, I'm just I don't do anything, you know, I'm worthless because I can't be productive.

SPEAKER_01

It's so hard when there is such a disconnect from mind to body where your body literally can't. It needs the rest, it needs to be horizontal, and your mind is just stimulated and wants to go and has a million things that you know you want to achieve and this, that, and the other thing. And that goes from like just even like household chores. Like you feel like you just get so behind in things, but it's because your body can't. And I'm still trying to

Rest Is Productive And Self-Trust

SPEAKER_01

balance it because I do pick and choose to do things that bring me a full life, like hanging out with friends and traveling and going to concerts and that like that absolutely wipes me. And you know, I think it's really easy for people to see those highlights, like the highlight reels and the fun things that you do in life, but you have no idea the second you come home, you peel back all that emphasized energy that you had to put into yourself. You peel it back and you're in bed for three days. Like it's it's a really hard, it's it's a mental mind fuck to say the least, to mesh your mind and body to be one when they're when they're so opposite.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think what what has helped me is realizing that like rest is productive. Like sometimes I will literally like I will be like, okay, from 2 to 3 p.m., what I'm doing right now is laying down. Like that is what I'm doing. Because I feel like when someone sees you laying down and being horizontal, they associate that with a lack of productivity, like not doing something, but when you're laying down, you're doing so much.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, because as being disabled and chronically ill, the most productive thing you can do is rest.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I guess reframing my mindset has helped it a lot. Like, I'm not lazy, I'm just strategic.

SPEAKER_01

That's a good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm constantly, it's it's on a loop in my head that rest is productive, rest is productive, rest is productive. Because it's so hard to grasp. It is because society, that's not what we're taught, you know. So it's real it is really hard.

What Allie Wants You To Know

SPEAKER_01

If you could go back to prior to getting, I mean, you kind of always felt sick as a kid growing up and stuff, but when it really started when it was what, 19, you said. If you could go back and tell yourself something pre-sickness, what would you tell yourself?

SPEAKER_02

I think I would tell myself, like, you're not crazy, you're not behind, your body isn't working right now. Even though, like, because I I look at it like 21 being the pivotal point for me of being like non-functional or sorry, being functional versus non-functional. Yeah, I would tell myself, like, you're not lazy, you're not behind, you're not crazy. You're like you feeling bad. There's a reason why you feel so bad. You don't have to keep pushing yourself this hard, like because you know, you're not lazy, your your body isn't working. I think it's important to focus on your health and your body. Like, I would really, I really stress to myself, like, please focus on your health right now. Don't worry about college, don't worry about dating, don't worry about impressing people, worry about your body right now. Focus on yourself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I don't know if this is the case. Maybe it's a thought, but just to distract yourself with other things to kind of disassociate from what's going on within your body in a way.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I I was always busy, you know, as a teenager and early 20s because I was ignoring the fact that I didn't feel good. And I was like, well, if I just work hard enough, it'll go away, you know. That that backfired.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_01

What do you hope listeners can take away from your story?

SPEAKER_02

I just want to show people that there are other people out there like them that go through the exact thing, exact same things as them. And that, yeah, like just again. I I I feel like when I first started getting sick, I started watching a lot of influencers with the same condition as me, and that made me feel tons better. Made me feel like I wasn't crazy. And I think people look at it as like an abnormal thing going on in your body, and it's like, no, like this this is a normal part of the human experience.

SPEAKER_01

And it's becoming a lot more saturated, it feels like there's a lot more people getting sick, and uh it's kind of interesting how post-COVID a lot more people are becoming sick. Obviously, long COVID's a thing, but it is really interesting, like the pivotal moment for people feeling a lot worse.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, where like I meet a lot of people who like, oh, I just feel sick every day. I feel so fatigued. Like after COVID, I just I don't have brain fog. And I'm like, I think it's a lot more common than we think, you know.

SPEAKER_01

It is. I think I don't even know the statistic, but it feels like one in like three people at this time. I know it seems like it's everybody, and I never had COVID. Me either. So I'm I'm not long COVID that I know of. Right, right. I never had a confirmed case, but we don't know because COVID was so all over the place with symptomatic, not symptomatic, who knows?

SPEAKER_02

I just feel like a lot of people are pre-chronically ill. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like I meet people, I'm like, ooh, that symptom is not normal for you. Like, you know, that's that's indicative of something more.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I mean, obviously, there's a lot of hurdles with in our healthcare system to properly get people diagnosed and to properly get people healthcare in order to see a damn doctor, which is a whole nother problem. Lack of health care, yeah. Lack of access to good health care. Yeah, it's absolutely insane. Here we are. This is the reality. I won't keep you any longer.

Where To Follow And Goodbye

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your journey and experiences and knowledge and your perspective living with chronic illness. Um, I can't wait for more people to check out your content and your page because I love your shit.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much for having me on here. Oh my god, of course. This is so fun.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, we can do it again. And if you ever come to Nashville, please let me know. And if I'm ever up your way, I will I'm not often, but I'll let you know. Have a little hang.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for listening to another episode. Make sure you follow Ali Rose819 on TikTok and Instagram. I will link everything below and make sure you're hitting that little bell to know when the next episode is, and follow along on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. And we will catch you next time.