An Introduction

To those of you who are reading this due to knowing me, it's good to see you. If you've stumbled across this looking for advice or whatever, I give you many hugs and I hope I can be of some help or comfort.

My aim for this blog is to provide help and support not only for other students and young people going through what I currently am, but to provide a space for me to talk freely about medical and food stuff without burdening anyone.

So, first of all, my medical story. (Yay, cheery!) Around two years ago I was diagnosed with congenital syringomyelia; meaning that I have a small cyst in my spinal chord - I was born with it and it isn't growing but causes chronic pain. After seeing various doctors and physios, I have had one lumbar puncture and am currently on 1200mg/day of Gabapentin (Neurotin) with the aim to increase my dose. This condition has caused me a lot of, I guess, emotional stress because it stops me doing things I want and can be very painful and frustrating.
On the 6th May this year I was diagnosed with coeliac disease (after blood tests and an endoscopy). This entails having to go onto a gluten free diet (not the easiest thing for a vegetarian to do, let alone a student) and I am also on nutrient supplements due to the fact that I am anemic, vit D and vit B12 deficient. It's generally made me very tired.
Interestingly there is some talk in the medical world that these two conditions may be linked. There is currently no cure for both.

Away with the doom and gloom, how about me? I'm a (nearly) 19 year old English student. I love to read and write; I have another blog, two youtube channels (vlog and booktube) and a tumblr. I have just finished my first year of university and it has been incredible; my aim is to go into publishing and to work in editorial. I'm massively looking forward to going back to uni in September and part of the reason I want to do this blog is so I can record recipes, and see what works and what's cheap. I'm also going to be recording general health stuff - I'm planning on swimming this summer (two or three times weekly) in order to get fitter and hopefully reduce my pain.

Finally, the name: my dear friend Joel thought that it was 'celery' disease and thought that I was, rather than a 'coeliac', was a 'celery'. Thus I am now Celery.