Ask Me Anything: From Bralettes to Kid Activities to My Recent Health Diagnosis

As we round out 2024, Emily wanted to have a little fireside chat and bring all of YOU to the mic by answering some of the Flock's questions that were asked during a recent Ask Me Anything poll! An eclectic mix of topics to say the least, but today's episode feels like a bestie heart to heart about some of the things you've been wondering! This will be the last episode of the pod for the year -- be sure to check back in sometime in January for the first show release of 2025!

Time Stamps:

0:25 - Intro
4:58 - Question 1: How do you navigate the social media struggle and stay in the present moment?
14:09 - Question 2: What are some of your fave activities to do with young kiddos during the holiday season?
21:59 - Question 3: What's on YOUR Christmas wishlist / what are your top suggestions for gifts over the holiday season?
28:15 - Question 4: How is Emily feeling? An update on my recent health diagnosis for those of you who have been asking! 
33:07 - Wrap Up and Disclaimer

Connect with Emily:

On The Gram - @thejoyfulflamingo https://www.instagram.com/thejoyfulflamingo/

For Collaborations - thejoyfulflamingo@gmail.com

The Joyful Flamingo Podcast is produced by jpvoiceovers.
You can find them here : jpvoiceovers

*DISCLAIMER*
Just a reminder, that I am not a medical or psychological professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and journey through life and is brought to you through my own opinions and my own lens. Any suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your own healthcare professionals for either your physical or mental wellbeing.

Transcript

As a final hurrah before we say goodbye to 2024, I put it out to the flock to
ask me anything and today's show is answering some of your questions. An eclectic
mix of topics to chat about to say the least, but I'm here for it. It's a little
friend -to -friend chat based around the wonderings directly from you guys today. So,
let's get to it!
Well hey there friend and welcome to the joyful flamingo podcast I'm your host Emily
Schreiber and I am obsessed with empowering women to tune into themselves to zoom in
on their own well -being so in turn they can lead their most vibrant aligned and
joyful lives. I want to create a tsunami of self -discovered self loved and self
-understood women to show up in this world unapologetically and joyfully and to pass
the torch on for generations to come. If any of that feels aligned with your vibe
stick around, I'm so glad you're here. Now, let's go find our joy.
Hey, hey, hey, Joyful Flamingo Flock, and how the heck are ya? I hope you're
enjoying the festive season this far. We are officially one week to go before
Christmas. It came and went so fast this year. But I have a question for you. Are
you taking care of yourself? That's the question I wanna ask you today. At a time
where we are often focusing a lot on doing things for others,
making it a magical season For our kids if we have them you cannot forget about
yourself You can't forget that you're also a human who has needs and heck maybe
even wants So I want you to try and do something for yourself this upcoming week
to ground yourself to focus on you even if it's just I don't know sipping a hot
coffee in front of your tree or taking an extra long pause in the car before
entering the house when you come home from work. Or maybe it's going to bed early
or heck buying the store -bought cookies for kids' Christmas concerts so that you can
have a bath instead of bake at nine p .m. at night. You deserve time for you.
It's not selfish, so I want you to remember, it'll make you a better person, a
better partner, a better parent, sister, child, colleague, whatever it is to be
around, and you deserve it. So this is your little nudge -nudge. This is our last
episode of 2024. After this week, we're going to take a little bit of a longer
pause just to enjoy our holiday festive season. And, you know, we've got the kids
home for a couple of weeks here. So we're going to take just a short little stint
off and then come back refreshed in the new year. Keep your eyes peeled on social
media as to when that first episode of 2025 will officially air, or better yet,
be sure to subscribe or follow the show on the platform that you listen to, and
then you'll get a notification when it releases. I always do post on Instagram too.
It'll be sometime early to mid January. Today's show, it's kind of just like a
little fireside chat, friends. I really just wanted to round out the year by
bringing you all to the mic in a way that we do every so often.
And that way is through ask me anything polls. In today's show, I'm going to go
through four of the questions that were submitted in the past couple of weeks that
people had burning questions about. And to be honest, there's not really a theme to
the episode today because it's a little bit of a friendly, squirrely chat with your
bestie. You know, the kind of chat that you have when you have all your kids with
you and you sit down and you pour a drink four or five times and then it gets
spilled six or seven times. And then you start a conversation for five minutes and
then it gets interrupted and you restart it maybe another 10 times. It might feel a
little squirrely like that today because there's no real theme to this one. But what
else is new, right? That's how we roll over here at the Joyful go, we're finding
those tiny pockets of time to fill our cups with joy and laughter and togetherness
and connection. And so truly, I don't think there's a better way to end off the
year than this way than just sitting down with you, answering some of the questions
that you guys had in no particular order and having just a little friendly fireside
chat. I'm not by my fireside, but I'm fairly close to it. So I feel like I can
say that. So today I'm going to answer four questions for you and many of them
popped up either multiple times within the last poll that I did or have been asked
about in previous polls. So I felt like these were really good ones to pick and
even though they kind of jump all over the place, I feel like obviously you guys
have these things on your mind. So let's chat about them. The first flocky that
submitted a question asked this. How do you navigate the social media struggle?
I'm wanting to capture moments by taking pictures on my phone, but I also want to
try to stay in the present moment and not always have my device on hand. I feel
like it's especially hard this time of year when we play the comparison game and
see the best version of everyone on social media. Oh my goodness. I really wanted
to start with this one because anytime I put out and ask me anything, this question
always shows up multiple times or at least some type of version of it, right? So
it's something to do with social media, with devices, whether it's about our kids'
usage of them or our own. In my last Ask Me Anything episode last year,
I tackled the subject of filter -free images because that was something that popped
up. I know just in general, this is a hot topic that's top of mind for all of
us, and especially for those of us who are in our raising young kids phase. And I
really, I'd love to dive deeper into this topic in a full episode next year,
potentially by lining up some really great guests. And I've read some really great
books lately that I want to dissect with you, but today for now,
I'll just answer honestly how I'm navigating the topic currently. Like always,
you may not agree, and that's okay. But sometimes hearing someone else's answer is
at least helpful in expanding our own thinking. And also try and remember that my
viewpoint is going to be slightly different than anybody else's because I also use
my social media to build the brand of the joyful flamingo and my business there. So
I look at media may be a little bit differently because I also use it as a tool
and as a way to connect with this glorious flocking community that we're building
here. So I don't necessarily use my social media anymore for sharing all the moments
of my family's life, but that wasn't always the case. So for any OG people who
have been around on my social media for longer than two years, You would have known
that that was what I shared predominantly in the early stages of my social media
phases. And right now, if you're kind of new to following me, you may notice that
I don't ever share images of my kids or my family on there. But it is a
relatively new thing, like maybe in the past kind of year and a half or so. You
know, if we were wind all the way back to 2018 when I became a new mom and when
I was parenting really young kids through the pandemic, I shared a lot about my
kids online because truthfully, when we look at that, it was an easy way to feel
like I was still connecting to those around me and sharing what was happening in my
life and capture the sweet moments that would probably be fleeting otherwise,
especially because I was on my own for so much of it in the heat of isolation
through the pandemic. And so it was what I was sharing predominantly back then, but
the shift for me was that it then became a crutch. I was constantly making sure
that I was snapping images of everything that was happening in front of me. And
then what I was doing was I was taking the time to then post them. What I
realized was in that time that I was focused on my device, I was missing out on
the present moment. And I was experiencing all of our special moments as a family
through a lens rather than through my own eyes. It started to leave me with an
icky feeling. I didn't really like what I was modeling to our girls, that I always
just needed to have my device on me and that I wanted to capture everything through
this tiny little camera that's in my device. And I really wanted to try and halt
that when I noticed that it was becoming a problem for me. Then this idea of
wanting to get off of social media as a way of just sharing everything that's
happening in my life, I wanted to get away from that idea a little bit more as my
community with the podcast grew because that following grew too. And with that many
people that were starting to follow me who I didn't really know very well at the
beginning anyway, I just didn't really feel comfortable involving my kids on that
platform anymore. That's a little bit of the backstory as to where I'm at currently.
And there's more in -depth of that on my last Ask Me Anything podcast episode, so
go and take a listen to that one if you want more of a background. But to answer
specifically this blocky's question about what I'm currently doing, this is my answer.
I use social media to connect with my community, but I don't use it anymore as a
scrapbook or a magnifying glass into my family's life. What I've decided is that I'm
now keeping those moments for myself and for my close family and friends.
Sure, you'll see me post here and there about a yummy treat we made together or
the ice rink we're trying to build, but it's kind of sporadic. It's not an everyday
thing. It's kind of in the moment when I feel inspired and often when I'm alone
and don't have my family with me, I then go and post something that has already
happened. It usually doesn't involve anybody's face or anybody's names, and it's not
constant anymore. In the beginning, when I first made this transition to not post
all the time about what was happening in our life, I felt like I almost went too
far the other way because then I never had my phone with me because I was like
obsessed with just like putting my phone down and being in the present moment. And
then I feel like I maybe missed a good like six month chunk of snapping any photos
because I just never had my phone around me. And then we found a little bit of a
happy medium for us. So this is our happy medium. We usually try to make sure that
my husband takes pictures of things we're doing as a family, because he doesn't have
social media. So, for him, it's a much quicker interaction on his device when we
use his phone as a camera. And then, every so often, we pop the images that we've
taken or the milestones that we've captured of our family's life, we pop them in
family chat groups that we have with both sides of our families, and, you know, a
few group chats that we have with our besties, and we update and share those really
important and special moments with the people in our life that matter the most. I'm
not saying this to you, Flocki's being like, you guys don't matter to me, but truth
be told, my family and personal life now is not for the masses anymore.
It was for a little while there, but now I've decided that it's actually for the
select few. I think that this is where that comparison piece that this Flocki is
talking about maybe comes into play. You know, at First, when I stopped sharing to
social media about things about my family specifically, I thought to myself, "Are
people going to think that I don't care about my kids?" Or that I don't do fun
things with them, or that I'm not proud or excited about their milestones or their
birthdays or whatever. Ultimately, what I came to realize was that I'm just so much
more of a present mom when I just don't do it and don't think about it. When I
don't care what anyone else really thinks about it. It's kind of become the norm of
what people expect from me now. People know they're not going to see pictures of my
kids. They know they're not going to see, you know, a sweet little capture of a
moment with their sweet little face. Even though they're so stinking cute and I want
to share them often, I've chosen not to. And that's predominantly also because I've
chosen to try and keep my device away from my hands as often as I can. Truth be
told, that means oftentimes I forget to take the damn picture. These are definitely
times where I feel sad about that. I'm thinking, ah, shit, I wish I had a picture
of that. You know what I've also realized? Most of the time, there's somebody around
you that has some form of camera. So if I am looking around going, oh, I want a
picture of this, I just say to my mom or my dad or my husband or my sister or
my brother or my friends, I say, hey, can you snap a quick picture of that and
then send it to me, I realized that someone's probably going to take the picture
for me and I'll be able to still have those memories, but I'll feel like I've been
able to experience the actual memory with my kids so much more. It was a real
learning curve for me and it took a while to break the habit, but this is the way
that it works best. And you know what? No one even cares.
Truthfully, No one cares because they're all so focused. We are all so focused about
what we are doing ourselves. So don't ever feel pressured or the need to show
people your highlight reel of all the amazing things you do over the holidays in
this busy time. Just try and remember, stay in your own lane, do what makes you
feel good, enjoy the moment, and if it feels good to put the phone down, do it.
That's my current philosophy. Will it change? Likely. But for that Flocky's question,
I hope it helped. The question of devices and social media on our overall well
-being and our kids' well -being, it comes up so frequently and we need a town hall
meeting episode on it soon, but hopefully that gives that Flocky a little bit of
something to bite off and chew on. Question Two, coming at you, very different.
What are some of your favorite activities to do with your young kids during the
holiday season? I think people often ask me questions about activities with toddlers
too, because they know I have a teaching background, and because they know I've been
at home with my kids for the past six years. And the teacher in me actually loves
this question. Although I feel like it's gonna maybe be hard to answer in a podcast
because a lot of the things that I want to share with you about what we do this
year or sorry what we do at this time of year have a visual component to explain
it to you but I'm going to try my best. We have a few traditions this time of
year that I really love and the first is what we call our advent calendar of
togetherness. It's basically this big canvas calendar that I think I found on Amazon
and it hangs on our wall for the month of December and it's got little pockets in
it. But instead of the kids opening up each of the pockets each day and getting a
chocolate or a toy, instead of something that they're getting, it's an activity that
we do together as a family. This year, our oldest is loving waking up each morning
and going down and grabbing the little note of the activity outside of the calendar
because now she can read. So she can read it and she sits down and reads what
we're gonna do as the activity for our family to her little sister And it's really
cute and here's the key None of the things are extravagant really. It's things that
we probably were already gonna fit into our week anyway But it's kind of this
visual reminder to the four of us of how important it is to just truly be together
to do something together. Some of the examples that are in there are things that
you're all doing anyway. It's things like going to visit Santa or the Santa Claus
Parade or baking Christmas cookies, reading books and doing puzzles by the fireplace,
you know, a Christmas song dance party around the tree, watching a Christmas movie
and drinking hot chocolate, going sledding, going on a walk to see all of the
different Christmas decorations and lights in your neighborhood. Tonight's activity is
visit the library to find new holiday books to read. It's nothing crazy. It's
nothing that we're spending oodles and oodles of money or time on. And there's a
lot of them that are also focused on giving back. We receive, receive, receive,
receive so much at this time of year, especially as kids that we really wanted to
slow it down and try to teach them to give back at this time of year too. So
things like paying it forward to someone, donating five of your toys to others,
decorating Great Grandma's door for the holidays, you know, things that put the
emphasis on the time we're spending together, not the receiving. And don't forget,
some of them are bound to be flops too. Like last year, there were for sure like
three or four things that I was like, not going in the calendar this next year
coming. And this past weekend, Oh my gosh, I thought it was gonna be so demure. So
lovely, so demure. To make a popcorn and cranberry garland with my six and three
year old. I 10 out of 10 do not recommend at this age group. (laughs) It was not
the vision that I had in my head, but the beauty is your family is gonna find the
activities that are must do's each year because they're big hits and you just
gravitate towards them every year. And then you'll also find ones that were flops
that you wouldn't repeat. And I swear when you do that over and over again each
year, I really, truly think it's something that even teenagers are gonna love as
really fond memories of this time of year. So that's one of the things that we
love doing with our young kids. Another thing we've really come to adore is what we
call our neighborhood cookie party. We actually just hosted ours this past week and
it was such a blast. It was all our big friend group in our neighborhood that all
have kiddos of similar ages and what we do is we come together to do a big
massive cookie exchange. Each family came to our house, they brought two dozen
cookies of their favorite recipe and then every family goes home with two dozen
cookies but it's an assortment of different kinds. We also then come together to
make huge batches of sugar cookies and then all the kids decorate them at the party
to eat them with hot chocolate and this year we had, we tried to have our rink
but it wasn't frozen quite yet so we did have our fire pit going. We had roasting
marshmallows, the Grinch was playing on the TV, we had some Christmas activities set
up in the basement like decorating ornaments and fun Play -Doh colors and that type
of stuff, but really truly what that is about. Well, first of all,
cookies. Who doesn't love cookies? But second of all, it's just a really great time
to connect with the people that are around you, the people that live close to you.
I am such a proponent of really getting to know the people who live in your
neighborhood. I think it can be so powerful for you as the adults, but also for
your kids. And we just come together for festive cheer and to build that community
and connect with those people that we love dearly. So we did it for the first time
last year. The kids of the neighborhood loved it. They started asking about it again
kind of like early November. So we did it again this year and I think it's going
to be a yearly tradition and I really do love, love, love it. So that's another
fun thing that you can think about doing with your kids. And then lastly to this
flocking who's asking, "What can we do at this time of year with our young kids?"
I'm a crafter. Creating and making things with my hands and with my kids is
something that I love doing. And I follow a couple of really great accounts on
Instagram who give me the inspo for activities and crafts. And this time of year,
they always have oodles and oodles that are festive themed, right? So if you're
looking for those accounts to follow, send me a quick DM and I'll give them to you
because there's some really great resources for people who have young kids. But you
know, things like homemade baked ornaments and festive Play -Doh colors and Christmas
decorations that can be hung on your windows. And then thinking about involving your
kids and helping to make gifts for others during the holiday season. Their teachers
are a really great place to start. This year, maybe consider doing a little bit of
something handmade for your kid's teachers or your kid's daycare providers. Things
like honestly, even just homemade cards, that can go such a long way for a teacher
or somebody who's the other trusted adult in your kid's life. This year, I think
we're going to do some loaves of sourdough bread, some nut butters, maybe some
simmer pot, some cookie platters, and the girls are involved in doing that.
Although it's, you know, maybe a little bit more work and a little extra chaotic to
have them helping in those moments. I do think that it sets a really great
foundation to talk about what Christmas is all about, which is sharing joy with
others and really just taking in the present moment with the loved ones that are
around you. And I think that they'll have such fond memories of those types of
things too. Again, if you want those accounts to follow the actual like visual
activities that you can do for crafting and things like that, let me know and I'll
send them your way in a DM. But hopefully that gives that flocking some ideas of
things that you can do with your littles this time of year. I've actually gotten a
type of question like that quite a few times too, not necessarily at the festive
season, but maybe the podcast should consider doing some sort of like toddler chat
episode or something like that. Maybe something to ponder for the new year.
Next one. One of you asked what's on your Christmas wish list and what are your
top suggestions for gifts over the holiday season? This is so fun. And I felt like,
oh, it's kind of individual. So this is gonna be hard to answer. So I just
decided, I'm just gonna tell you all what I would want. (laughs) And maybe that's
what this person means. They just like want some inspiration. Here's the deal, guys.
I'm like absolutely obsessed with the new Knicks pieces that have come out for
holiday season. I know I've said it before, maybe in a podcast, but for sure on my
social media, the pajamas this year are a true treasure.
I have lived in them for the past three or four weeks and I just feel like luxury
lounge and sleepwear is something that I feel like anyone can get on board with.
And there's so many different options. But for me, if you're, if you want a really
amazing quality, Diverse lounge wear or sleep set for anybody go with their moda
sleep sets They're my ultimate favorite and they come in lots of great colors and
they come in either long sleeve short sleeve Like you name it, but they're stunning
and amazing. I would ask for that for Christmas. Even though I already have three
of them I would also ask for their gossamer lace bra let and their underwear their
their gossamer place underwear. They're stunning. They are so flattering.
They're French cut. So they go up a little bit like they're not high rise covering
the belly button, but they cut off like almost right at the belly button. But the
cut of the leg is super flattering and that's coming from somebody who does not
have these like gorgeous long legs, right? I've got quite short legs and I feel
like it really elongates them and they're beautiful colors and so comfortable.
Honestly, just stunning. So I mean, I just feel like you can't maybe gift that to
everyone. A lace bra, let and some lace underwear, but you could gift it to
yourself. Okay, those are my things. Those are my two things from Nick's that I
okay, there's one for you and one for someone else pajamas for someone else, lace
bra, let and underwear for you. Okay, what else do I want. Oh, okay. So Mike and
I actually don't ever exchange gifts, really ever. I think some of you know this
because I wrote it in a podcast a couple of months ago. We don't do gifts, but we
write each other letters instead. And then oftentimes what we'll do is we'll decide
on something that we would like to have like for our home or for ourselves as a
unit. And then we buy it instead, instead of gifting to each other. This year we
actually both really wanted new cookware. So non -stick is amazing and the ease that
comes with cleaning it is awesome, but we were starting to feel uncomfortable with
the amount of like potential icky forever chemicals that were being released into our
foods through the coding of the non -stick stuff that we had. So we were doing a
lot of research over the past couple of months and we just purchased on a Black
Friday sale, a set of our place cookware. So have you heard of this brand? Oh my
gosh, I'm so in love. They're multifunctional pots and pans. So the thing about it
is that you actually only need like four of them and they can do everything because
of the way that they're designed. They're toxin free pieces that allow you to have
just a few pots and pans that can be used for everything. So they're really great
for minimizing, is that a word? Minimalizing your kitchen and streamlining what's in
your kitchen drawers. They're great for the stove top. So we have gas, but they're
also great for, I think for any type of stove, but they also are great for going
in the oven and they have this ceramic nonstick coating that they've patented that
is devoid of all of the nasties in it. That's what was the big one for me.
They're clean. And they also come with these beautiful beechwood utensils to cook
with. And they also have strainers and steam release lids all built in. So we got
a set of four. And then the Black Friday deal was I also basically got the entire
bakeware set, which I'm so in love with and it's so beautiful for free. And we
basically said goodbye to everything else in our kitchen. So it makes it very
minimalistic in our kitchen drawers right now, which I'm loving. They're beautiful
colors. They're sleek. I'm just really in love. So I mean, that is basically what
we got for Christmas. And so I would recommend it to anybody who loves being in
the kitchen. I mean, don't give it to someone who doesn't like cooking. But if you
have someone in your life who loves to bake or cook, check out that company because
I think it's pretty cool. And then lastly, if I'm thinking of things that I love
to gift, so maybe now I'm getting away from the things that I want, what do I
love to gift? I love gifting things that are homemade. And I mentioned some of them
earlier in the episode when I was talking about teacher gifts, but simple things,
like if I'm going to go to a neighbor's home and bring something for Christmas, I
would much rather bake a loaf of bread or throw a bunch of beautiful things into a
mason jar for a simmer pot for them, then go out and buy something that I don't
even know if they like. It's more cost effective, first of all, but it also shows
the love that goes into the gift. I love baking. I love preparing meals for
somebody or, you know, little cookie platters or nut butters or bread or simmer pots
or little rollers with essential oils in them. Those are the types of things that I
love gifting. And maybe you're like, "Oh girl, that is so not me and that's totally
okay." But you did ask.
So because you're asking, I'm telling, those are the things that I love to gift.
The thing that's really on my Christmas wish list, like if you're asking me truly
what it is, it's always just time with my family uninterrupted.
I would also maybe take a good decrease in the toddler's ass this year.
Anyone? Is it just me? I could take some of that wrapped up in a nice little bow.
And then I'd maybe also take an increased dose of some good health for our family.
That would also be nice. And that kind of brings us to our last question perfectly
because a couple of you asked either something like how are you feeling or I heard
on your last episode that your health hasn't been great. What's happening? How are
you doing now? Somebody said no question here. I just wanted to say I've been
sending you good thoughts and hoping you're feeling okay. First of all, I just want
to say thank you for that. Thank you for all the well wishes and the good thoughts
being thrown at me. I'm going to take them all and bottle them up and to be
honest I don't even know where to start here because it's a bit of a long story
and I do think I'm gonna save the whole thing for a full episode in the new year.
Short version for those of you who are asking. It's been about seven months of
trying to figure out what the hell is happening inside my body and we have finally
figured out after about seven months that I have something called Iliocolic Crohn's
disease. It took months and months and months and months of really nasty symptoms
that basically started at the beginning of the summer and it took multiple blood
tests and emerge visits and CT scans and ultrasounds and then ultimately biopsies to
be taken from a scope and a colonoscopy to get to this point. But at least now we
know it's Crohn's disease and it's called Iliocolic. I think that's how you pronounce
it because I have the disease located in two parts of my GI tract. If you've never
heard of Crohn's disease, it is an autoimmune disorder. So that basically means that
my body's immune system attacks the healthy tissue. My body is attacking my GI
tract, both in my colon and also in my small intestine, and the ilium. The ilium
is, as I understand it, the thing that connects is at the very beginning of my
small bowel, my small intestine. What's happening is it's causing chronic inflammation
in these areas, and then it's not allowing my body to absorb nutrients, which is
why it's called an inflammatory bowel disease. This is actually different from IBS,
so inflammatory bowel disease is IBD. IBS stands for irritable bowel syndrome,
so that's a completely different thing, and maybe I'll get into a little bit more
about that in a further episode, but it is something different because it's a
chronic illness, inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic illness, and it's gonna be
something I'm gonna now have to manage for forever. Before we knew what it was, I
was just bleeding excessively out of parts of my body that are not so nice to
bleed out of. And that inflammation was causing all of that bleeding.
And it was just making me overall feel really unwell, like a lot of extreme fatigue
from all of that, really severe abdominal cramping, multiple, multiple,
multiple trips to the washroom daily. And it just felt really hard to do regular
life for a while there, you know, especially parenting young kids. Now that we know
what it is, now that we have that first step of being able to figure out how to
get it under control, that feels like a bit of relief for me. There's no cure. It
is a chronic disease that I'll need to learn how to manage from now on. For now,
we have got me on some medication that's going to decrease the inflammation while I
wait to get in to see my gastroenterologist, who I actually get to see this week,
which is an exciting thing. And they will be able to help me decide how my therapy
for this will move forward. Being diagnosed with a chronic illness, especially at 36
is never easy. And it comes along with a lot of questions and a lot of unknowns
for me. But for right now, to answer all of these blockies who are asking, how How
are you doing? Here's the answer. I am feeling better. I've started on something
called prednisone. It's decreasing the amount of blood that's coming out of my body.
And it's also, thank goodness, making my days a little bit more predictable, which
is really, really good. And it comes, you know, with its own slew of side effects.
But for now, I am grateful to have this temporary gift of being able to feel
better until we can really decide how to move forward in a more concrete way,
because steroids are really just not a long -term solution. So I've got oodles and
oodles more to share about what this past seven month health journey has looked
like. And I really wanna share it with you all because I think it's gonna be
really powerful for a lot of people, how it affected my mental health, so many
thoughts on being diagnosed with chronic illness. But For now, I think I'll just
leave it there with saying that I am feeling better and I am feeling a little bit
of relief now at least knowing what it is.
So there you have it, what a strange and chaotic list of things to talk about on
the last podcast for the year. Oh my gosh, we go from social media to toddler
activities to pets and lace thongs to Crohn's disease. Those don't mix.
Also FYI, get yourself a full bottom and leak proof if you have Crohn's.
Nothing like the end of a year and nothing like the end of a year, squirrely chat
with a friend to round out the podcast for 2024. But again, it is slightly
wholesome for me. It makes me feel like I'm just sipping a cup of probably cold
coffee, chatting with a friend, and catching up on life. As it should be, as it
should be. And just thank you to all of you for connecting and asking and
submitting your questions. And hopefully if yours didn't get answered this time, it
does next time. As we bid this year adieu, dear Flocky friends. I just want you to
know how very grateful I am for each and every one of you. Thank you always for
clicking play. Thank you always for listening. Thank you always for sharing and thank
you always for reflecting and connecting with me about what those reflections were
and what stood out to you on each episode. Those are truly the moments that I live
for and I just, I gotta remind you again, take care of yourself, especially over
the next couple of weeks. It's so important and we will be back sometime in January
with some new episodes for you to listen to, but until then, be cozy,
stay warm, enjoy your holiday season with your loved ones, and thank you for being
part of this joyful Flamingo Flock. Until next year.
Just a reminder, Flamingo Flock, that I am not a medical or psychological
professional. Each one of my episodes has been inspired by my own experience and
journey through life and has brought to you through my own opinions and lens. Any
suggestions or advice offered here do not substitute proper conversations with your
own health care professionals for either your physical or mental well -being.