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I love the art, Bryn! This whole piece is very resonant, as someone who lives with a chronic illness in remission and who experienced acute drug induced lupus when I was 11. The road to acceptance, instead of feeling like my body was attacking me, was a bit long.

Truly, the part of this piece I loved the most was where I was not the only one who remembers Stacy had diabetes in the babysitters club books.

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It’s definitely a non-linear journey, isn’t it, Camille? I hope you’re doing better now 💜

(And truth be told I was totally Mary Anne 😂)

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Definitely! I am- I haven't had a seizure in 8 years :) I'm very lucky. I was also more of a Mary Anne. I couldn't relate to how angsty Kristin could be and Stacy seemed *too* glamorous for me, like an unattainable level of glam- even with Type 1 diabetes. I did love those books.

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Food for thought here.

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Thanks Mark! ☺️

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"(How someone came to the idea of smearing it on skin, though, is a mystery. Maybe an equally graceful person with psoriasis fell on a freshly-paved road over 100 years ago?)" - I was wondering the same thing and have wondered when reading bottles of scalp treatment shampoo. Who came up with that? Sounds like a dig into the science archives at some point!

The BSC reference is on point, too!

Your choice for art for this piece was stunning, love them all.

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I love all my BSC stans coming out of the woodwork with this 🙌 Thanks, Misti, for reviewing and sharing your kind words on the art - and yes, I need to dig deeper on the origins of pavement therapy 😂

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A beautiful post, and such beautiful art, Bryn. I love how you've represented yourself here, and I'm tempted to try some autoimmunity art of my own. Thank you for the inspiration!

I've never come across The Babysitters Club, but I remember getting very upset with Julia Roberts portraying Shelby, the character with diabetes, in Steel Magnolias. 'I'm nothing LIKE that when I'm hypo - she's massively overacting!' I told the person watching it with me. 'You're right: you're NOTHING like that', he said. 'You're WORSE!'

Charming. 🤣

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Thanks Rebecca! 💜 It does get glossed over and dramatized, I’ve noticed. Folks not realizing how big of a deal real hypo is.

I shamefully have not watched that movie (I live in a weird media cave), but the BSC books were up there with Judy Blume and Kit Pearson when it came to preteen and teenage girl drama. I have a feeling it’s a distinctly American thing, and us Canucks tend to get our media influences from both sides. A weird mishmash.

I’d love to see what you come up with! I still recall your lovely post about seeing the little girl on a school trip wearing a pump 💙

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Bryn, this is an extraordinary coincidence, but because it's a particularly busy week for me this week, yesterday I scheduled another 'old gold' post for this coming Saturday. GUESS which post I've dug out from my archive...?! 🤣

To be honest (and perhaps I'm being irresponsible here for saying this), I perhaps don't realise myself - during a hypo, that is - quite what a big deal a hypo is. I drive Jim nuts, poor thing - I have such a fear of diabetes complications (which are caused by high blood glucose) that I run my 'thermostat' on the lower side of ideal.

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I liked your "Layers" collage. Also Ben's comment. 🙂

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Thanks James. ☺️

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