It’s been two very difficult weeks for Lou and I. I have been working on my mental health but sometimes you just can’t stop life from happening. As the clinic and treatment gains popularity, naturally there will be people who do not understand it. We have attracted some hate online (again) which have worn us down emotionally and mentally. Past experience has taught us that it is best left alone, so we have put our heads down, trudged on and focused on our job - caring for our patients. On my off days, thoughts about it seep in and I can’t shake them off. I battle spirals of negativity and low ..read more

Sitting on the train looking out the window at the passing greenery; it’s a sunny summer Tuesday morning and I’m on the way to work. I listen to the playlist Tom and I had put together in our first year of dating. It brings me back to the days when I was carefree and could be fully present in the moment. Long late night video calls without worrying about the next day, spending hours having a picnic in the sun and watching the flies spin above us in a little hurricane, putting a vinyl on and lying on the bed just staring into each others eyes. We were swimming in a pool of sweet new love. Our r ..read more

Life at the clinic has its ups and downs. Some days we look at what we have created and beam in pride - who would have thought, the both of us extremely ordinary ladies, could helm such an amazing company that changes peoples’ lives every single day? Yet on other days we are at the brink of giving up this entity that we “raised” with literal blood, sweat and tears. Just last week was one of these trying times. Lou and I were on the brink of throwing the towel in and flying to the Bahamas for a half year vacation to escape it all. We have been experiencing a growth hump - something we face now ..read more

This coming May it will be 2 years since I set foot onto British shores. I can’t believe that I am still alive and kicking, given what has transpired in the last year and a half. I arrived as a wide-eyed, clueless young adult who did not know what was ahead of her. Little did I know, it would become one of the toughest years I had to endure in my life. It is also the year that marked my becoming of a true adult. Growing pains, they say. Despite being 28, I lacked any experience whatsoever of taking care of myself, and for that reason I could not say with confidence I was a mature adult. I had ..read more

It never occured to me, how painful it would be for both parties, the separation of mother and child from the nest. It is painful but necessary, like the amputation of a diabetic limb. It has to happen for a healthier whole. I watched my mothers eyes well up in tears as she asked, “Are you happy here?” I answered yes. “Do you want me to come back?” “If you’re happy here then no… but maybe visit more often.” I told her of my plans to visit every year, rotating between June and January. It wouldn’t seem so long in between then. Immediately I felt my heart rip, and the strong tug to head back. Ba ..read more

My English teacher in Secondary One, Mrs Fern, made us keep weekly journals as a writing exercise. At that time in my youth, I was going through a form of TSW without any awareness of it. It being a big part of my life, I wrote about my medical visits to the doctors and the procedures I had to endure in search of a “cure”. At the end of every school year, our teachers would write a little report of our character in school. Mrs. Fern, having read about my arduous journey of healing from “eczema”, wrote that I was “stoic”. It was the first time I heard of that word and so I looked it up. It mean ..read more