click photo: 'walled in'
On January 1, 2010 (by the calendar that rules where I live on this planet)--I am beginning Round 3 of anti-malarial medications.
I'm in late stages of three tick-borne diseases which went undiagnosed and untreated for more than 30 years: Lyme, Bartonella and Babesiosis (sometimes characterized as the malaria of the Northeast United States. because the organism is so similar and the treatment is the same).
For me, treatment is a challenge. As the tick-borne diseases went undiagnosed, I was prescribed so many antibiotics and other powerful pharmaceuticals to fight off life-threatening secondary infections and medical conditions that now it's hard for me to tolerate those medications, at a time when I need them.
I had to stop the first two rounds of anti-malarial medications because of excruciating permanent damage to my ears and hearing. I am beginning a more aggressive pharmaceutical treatment now, shortly after winter Solstice (where I live on this planet).
I'm just at the very beginning of this battle. The diseases, symptoms and treatments keep me at home and impact greatly on my ability to communicate. I still have many, many unread messages since I was finally felled by illness in October 2007. But reading and writing has become increasingly more difficult.
However, over the course of my lifetime I've developed skills to care for my self and to struggle to stay alive in a violently hostile, profit-driven economic system, or else I would not have survived this long.
Most of my work now is through photographic labor, using an area of my brain that is a less painful work space. You can view my photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transgenderwarrior/sets/
Thanks to Torry Mendoza [http://www.torrymendoza.com/about.html] I now also have the ability to blog directly with you. If I can get my sea legs in anti-malarial treatment, my goal is to blog a photo every day. I follow flickr community guidelines, which means that photos re-posted online include a link back to their site on flickr: All of my photos are my personal gift to you via Creative Commons copyright: attribution, non-commercial, non-derivative.
I hope my photographs will bridge distance and language--spoken and signed--and build connection.
Check back here for updates or click on the "follow" button in the right-hand column. I look forward to connecting with your thinking on your blog, as well!
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