So the title of my post may have you a bit confused. Right now I'm supposed to be in Greece, emphasis on supposed to be. Unfortunately last Tuesday I had to make the trip from Santorini home. There is a part of my life that I have never shared on this blog before and it is the reason I had to come home. I have a lot of health problems. I have been working on a post about my health for months now, but I never get around to finishing it or decide that it needs to be rewritten or just decide that I'm still not ready to share. It's something that is such a huge part of my 'real life' that I almost don't want to bring it into this life because this is an escape for me.
My health issues are not something I can escape from though as is evident in the fact that I had to come home from Greece. I like that in blogland though it's something that I don't have to worry about or explain to everyone or have effect everything I do. However, I do know that at some point it is something I am going to share on here, it's just a matter of me deciding when.
At the end of last year I wrote a post about what I wanted to do here in 2014; #5 on that list was to "Get More Personal" and when I wrote that I was talking about sharing the health problems I deal with every day. In my everyday life I am an open book about these issues because it's not a secret or something that I treat as one. However, here I have just chosen to omit that part of my life as a way to take a break from it. I have decided though that I really want to share this part of my life because if it can help just one person, or make just one person better understand what living with chronic health issues is like, or even if it's just a good outlet for me to talk about everything than it is all worth it.
In the next few weeks my blog is turning 1 (which I am so excited for!) and I think that this anniversary is going to force me/give me the courage to open up and share with all of you. My discussion of my health issues will most likely be a one time or rarely mentioned thing, as I like having this space that is separate from all of it. I also feel like my wanting to talk about fashion, beauty, baking, crafting, and everything else I discuss on here is not really influenced by my health. However, when I do write my post I do want people to feel free to ask questions if they have any, I don't mind (polite) curiosity, and if anyone needs any help or someone to talk to I am always here.
I apologize that this post is so vague, this is just something that is going to take a bit of time for me and I ask that you are patient. Eventually everything will fall into place and kind of make sense, or at least I hope it will.
So now after all of my rambling let's get back to why I am in America and not Greece. For one of my health conditions I take injectable medication that needs to be refrigerated at all times. I needed three shots while in Greece, so my Dad ordered special ice packs from Australia (they're some new technology from a company he found) that remain cold for 24 hours at a time, to keep the medicine cold during the trip when I could not get to a refrigerator. I packed my three shots and these special ice packs in my little Vera Bradley cooler (we've got to keep it cute!) for the trip there. I made it through security and on the 10 hour plane ride plus extra travel time with them remaining cold. I'm not going to lie it was a pain in the ass, but it all worked out. When I got to our hotel in Athens my professor told me there was a mini fridge in my hotel room; well there was a mini fridge, but the problem was that mine was broken and at room temperature. When I asked the professor what to do she said to go to the front desk and have them put them in the hotel's refrigerator (she assured me that they spoke English, and would understand everything). I also needed to have the ice packs frozen for the next time we traveled and was told I could ask for that as well (with the ice packs, it was a thing where the longer they were in the freezer the better it would be next time you used them). So I went to the front desk to explain my situation, I explained like a 15 different times that the shots had to go in the refrigerator and the ice packs in the freezer. Well, a few days later when I went to get my shots I learned that the man I was dealing with did not actually speak English, or at least not a lot of it, because he took the shots and threw them in with the ice packs, and put them all in the freezer.
Needless to say I was completely panicked when I learned all of this because I did not know if the shots would be ok if they were frozen. I called my Mom crying and she had to call the company that makes the shots (it was too expensive for me to call them from Greece so she had to do it for me). Well of course all of this went down on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend and the company was unavailable (comforting, I know). So I packed up my shots and took them on the ferry to Mykonos with me unsure of whether or not they were ok. When we got to our hotel there I put them in the fridge in our room, since we had a working one this time. That Tuesday when my Mom was finally able to get ahold of the company they told her that the shots were ruined, and that if I took them I would get sicker.
My parents tried everything they could and there was no way to get new shots to me; there was also no way for me to get the shots in Greece. This is a very serious medication that if stopped I could develop even more health problems. I needed to get the medication as soon as possible and basically had no options. After countless hours of work on my Mom's end, lots of discussions with my doctors, and plenty of crying Skype calls, we decided that I had to come home. I had to go a week past the date of my shot, and could feel myself getting sick. In addition to that I had recently been having some issues with losing weight due to my health, which was not helping the situation. I knew that if I did not come home I was going to land up in the hospital in Greece, which I really did not want. My parents arranged everything and on Tuesday I woke up at 4 AM to begin my travels. I flew from Santorini to Athens, and then from Athens to Philadelphia. After about 20 hours of being awake and traveling I finally made it home. On Wednesday I was able to get my shot, and felt it working the next day!
To be honest I am completely heartbroken that this all worked out the way it did. However, I am choosing to look at the positives in all of this. I have always wanted to go to Europe and I did it. I got to see Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini, which was amazing. I did things that I never would have had the opportunity to do otherwise and will probably not have the opportunity to do again. I had an awesome two weeks and while I am very sad that I did not get the full six week experience I am proud that I was able to do what I got to do and that I did not let my health hold me back from trying the things that I did do. I am a big believer in everything happens for a reason, so that is what I keep telling myself when I get a little down about this.
It's taken me almost a week to write this post because I have been needing some serious R&R since I've been home. The last two weeks, all of the traveling, and jet lag really kicked my butt. I've honestly been doing a lot of sleeping and just trying to readjust to everything. In two weeks I took about 400 pictures and have been/am still working on going through them and editing them so they are all ready to post. I have some awesome things to share with you guys from this trip that I am probably going to be spreading out over some time, but I have not yet decided yet how I am going to be doing this. I also have some really great guest posts coming up that I cannot wait to share from some of my favorite bloggers who were so sweet and did posts for me for while I was supposed to be gone.
I'm not quite sure how to end what seems like the longest blog post ever! I'm glad that I've written this all and now I feel like I'm a few steps closer to sharing some personal things in my life that I've been wanting to share for a while. I'm just going to be taking baby steps, and I promise next time I will be less vague. I'm going to head out now, but look forward to more regularly scheduled posts again, and all the fun details from my time in Greece. This week I will definitely more like hopefully be getting back into my regular groove.
