M.E/ CFS & Fibromyalgia Awareness Day Nail Link-Up

Hello my lovely readers! I hope you are all having a great day, I am having a few bad days health wise at the moment. Today's post is my manicure for M.E & Fibromyalgia awareness day which is on May 12th. For this occasion me and Becca from A Certain Becca Nails have joined up to hold a nail link-up to raise awareness for both of these chronic illnesses. This is a cause close to me as I unfortunately have both of them. My post today will not only be about the nails I created for the link-up but also about the personal experience I have with living with these illnesses on a day to day basis.

For this mani I used the two different awareness colours for these chronic illnesses, M.E is blue and purple is Fibromyalgia. Butterflies and the hope ribbon are also connected with them too, there is also a theory called the spoon theory. This is where we look at our energy levels as if they are spoons, some days we will have more spoons than others and each activity uses up a spoon. Some sufferers find this helps them when they are trying to manage their energy levels, each action uses up a spoon and takes away their energy this could be something as simple as having a shower. For others this is a simple task but for sufferers like me this could use up lots of my energy and leave me feeling terrible afterwards. 

Lets get back to the nails for now, for my base colour I used this stunning light blue holographic from KB Shimmer called Purr-fectly Paw-Some, this came out recently in the the new Spring collection. This takes 2 coats to be fully opaque and is one of the most holographic polishes I have in my collection. It applied smoothly and has definitely entered my top 10 polishes, I love this it's blue, it's holo, and amazing! 

To add my butterflies I used the water decals from the Nailzopia nail art box, these applied so easily all I had to do was cut out the ones I wanted and then pop them in the water for a few seconds. Once my butterflies were in place I used my Uber Chic collection 3 plate 1 and 3 for the words and the ribbons. My ribbons are stamped with Mundo De Unas purple and Blue, the words were stamped with white. I can't believe just how opaque these stamping polishes are everything always comes out so crisp and clear. 

In the picture above are just some of the symptoms I have had from having these two chronic illnesses, they are both also counted as auto immune diseases. I was first diagnosed with M.E also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome when I was 13 years old. I was falling asleep in class, had no energy, felt sick all of the time and was in so much pain. It took doctors over a year to diagnose me, once I was diagnosed I had to learn what I could do and what I couldn't. This was really hard for me as all I wanted to do was lead a normal 13 year old life but that was no longer possible. 

Then when I was 18 the doctors also diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia, the two illnesses have so many symptoms in common that it is very hard to tell which one is affection me most each day. Over the years I have learnt to give myself limitations on what I can and can't do. Every single day I wake up and I won't know how I am going to feel, so trying to plan things is not easy. It has limited the amount of physical activities I can do and at this present time there is no cure for either. When I leave the chemist I have a carrier bag full of medication and I am only 24 but my body feels like I'm 60. 

I am not saying these are the worst things that can happen to someone because I know they are not. But they are very debilitating, some days it is harder to live with than others. At the end of the day I do feel more people should know about these illnesses, whenever I meet people and they find out I'm ill they always ask what is that? How does it affect you? You don't look ill. These are the usual things that I hear and struggle to explain, that is why I want to raise awareness for both of these conditions. They may not be killing us but that does not mean people shouldn't have more insight on how these affect people every day of their lives. 

I know this post is very word heavy and if you have read the whole thing then I send you a massive hug. Hopefully one day doctors will find a cure but for now I hope you have learnt a little bit about how these illnesses affect every day of my life. I will never give up though, yes I am in pain. Yes some days I can hardly get out of bed but no I will not just lay down and take it. I will live my life to the full, I will play with my daughter and when she is older me and her dad will teach her that Mummy is ill but it doesn't mean she won't do anything with you or try her hardest to be the best Mummy she can be. 

I really hope you like this mani, I am particularly proud of this one cause it is close to my heart. I will leave a link to the link-up and event page down below if you would like to join us and create a manicure of your own. For UK ladies Opulent Essences Sharon and Zoe have donated two custom polishes called M.E and Fibro which will be given to one lucky lady who has created a mani for this day. We will be using Random.org to make sure the winner is chosen fairly, sorry to the international ladies but we are limited to where we can post to and make sure it gets there safely. Please feel free to join us in the link-up though. 

Facebook Event Page

As always I hope you are all having a fab nail day and I will chat to all you lovely people again soon. Just want to say a massive thank you to Becca for helping me set everything up, and for being such an amazing supportive friend. I am so glad we met through polish and have a friendship based on so much more than that now, huge hugs and kisses hun. 

An InLinkz Link-up