20 Things I Never Thought I'd End Up Doing (But My Sjogren’s Syndrome Made Me Do)

I enjoy writing. And hopefully those of you who read my posts enjoy them. But I realized a lot of my posts are serious in nature due to the topic I choose to write about.

Raising awareness about chronic illnesses and Sjogren’s syndrome has become a bit of a calling for me. I advocated for those with disabilities while I had a career. I’d like to think I’m now lending my words to everyone out there who faces challenges like I do but don’t know how to explain it their friends and family.     

After writing so many serious posts, even the ones with humor in them, I thought I’d try to lighten things up a bit. So here’s my top 20 list of things I never thought I’d do. Ever!

1. Nearly choke on a small piece of cheese during my wedding photos. (Guess who ended up drinking more communion wine?)

2. Con my toddlers into giving me back rubs by telling them we were going to play cars and I was the mountain the cars had to go over to get to the town.

3. Drive around swathed in 2 yards of gauze fabric, along with huge sunglasses, in the summer. (The looks I got…)

4. Trip on dust.

5. Empty my purse at the store looking for my debit card and have 12 medicine bottles spill onto the counter. (Again, the looks I got…)

6. Forget stuff. Like Josh is not the dog…

7. Sit outside in the summer wearing sunscreen, long sleeves, sunglasses, a gauze blanket, and holding an umbrella while in the shade. (Yeah, at my kids’ baseball games. SMH.)

8. Match the color of my blush to the color of my facial rash, just in case.

9. Crawl around on the bedroom floor looking for pills.

10. Greet my son and his friends with a full syringe in one hand and empty vial in another as they burst into the house.

11. Have someone call the cops on me because I ran out of gas but I must have looked so bad that she thought I was having a medical emergency. (I was in a lot of pain.)

12. Have to carry a doctor’s note for my water bottle. And actually have use it.

13. Have my multiple bottles of eyedrops confiscated at a concert. (I swear the guy thought I was a dealer!)

14. Wear gloves. Everywhere. All year long. (Bed too…)

15. Forget stuff. (Did I mention that already?)

16. Make noise walking up stairs. With my knees. (It scares the cat.)

17. Break a tooth chewing gum designed to strengthen teeth.

18. Give the phlebotomist directions to my vein.

19. Stop using knives. (Ya’ know, after that first one goes flying…)

20. Get mistaken for being drunk walking down the hall.

Well, this is my top 20. Some of you will relate. Some won’t. But I hope all of you will laugh!

We want to hear your story. Become a Mighty contributor here.

Thinkstock photo by sodapix sodapix