Diagnosed Quotes

“I have another scan this week," I say lightly, hoping to reassure my loved ones that it is safe to rejoin my orbit. There is always another scan, because this is my reality. But the people I know are often busy contending with mildly painful ambition and the possibility of reward. I try to begrudge them nothing, except I'm not alongside them anymore.
In the meantime, I have been hunkering down with old medical supplies and swelling resentment. I tried— haven't I tried? — to avoid fights and remember birthdays. I showed up for dance recitals and listened to weight-loss dreams and kept the granularity of my medical treatments in soft focus. A person like that would be easier to love, I reasoned.
I try a small experiment and stop calling my regular rotation of friends and family, hoping that they will call me back on their own. _This is not a test. This is not a test._ The phone goes quiet, except for a handful of calls. I feel heavy with strange new grief. Is it bitter or unkind to want everyone to remember what I can't forget? Who wants to be confronted with the reality that we are all a breath away from a problem that could alter our lives completely? A friend with a very sick child said it best: I'm everyone's inspiration and and no one's friend.
I am asked all the time to say that, given what I've gained in perspective, I would never go back. Who would want to know the truth? Before was better.”
― Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear

“When I went to the medical profession complaining of fatigue and forgetfulness, they diagnosed me with Mental Illness, Sleep Apnea and Small Airways Disease. What I actually had was far larger and included Altitude Hypersensitivity, Circadian Rhythm Disorder and Urea Cycle Disorder, and all of them cause fatigue and forgetfulness!”
― Steven Magee

“Sometimes the words come like a tsunami; tidal and windswept they blind you to your weaknesses and it is difficult to keep up with the process. The poet often questions where this 'voice' comes from. Who lifted the visor that covered this once locked Pandora's Box that gave rise to this flight of manic panic? When it feels as if there is too much going on and it is hard to put a stop to it; go with it; go with the incessant flow and ebb although it is not always posed gracefully.

There will be enough time afterwards to vet everything, get through your nonsensical thoughts, every void and every streak of dissonance left behind with a fine tooth comb. Poets must always strive to dismantle frantically omens and discover fitting miracles to create an opus of thoughts and feelings. It is easy for a poet to become imperious.

This will always show up in the writing. It is unavoidable. Truths must marry godheads on the page. No poet is inexhaustible. When fatigue comes as it must, it must be diagnosed. We must always strive towards the glorified.”
― Abigail George, Feeding The Beasts

“The amount of people I met that had heart problems surprised me in high altitude astronomy. I had not seen it in other fields. After a decade of working at high altitudes, I was also diagnosed with a heart problem.”
― Steven Magee

“At the age of 47, the medical profession had me on four RX-Only prescription drugs for lung and heart problems, an RX-Only prescription continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) life support machine during sleep, two brain RX-Only prescriptions, a brain supplement, and high cholesterol medication. I am still in the process of being fully diagnosed by the medical profession and this drugs list may increase.”
― Steven Magee

“During the time I went through the corporate government disability system, I was aware that I had a strange sickness that would eventually kill me if not properly diagnosed and treated.”
― Steven Magee

“The corporate government disability system is like a lottery that really comes down to which judge you have been assigned to, regardless of how many medically diagnosed disabling health conditions you have.”
― Steven Magee

“It was unfortunate that every time my vitamin B12 levels were tested that they showed values that were in the USA normal range and prevented the B12 deficiency from being diagnosed and treated.”
― Steven Magee

“I was diagnosed with seizures at age of forty five.”
― Steven Magee

“At the age of 46 I was diagnosed with lung issues.”
― Steven Magee

“I was diagnosed with absence seizures after a decade of high altitude work up to 13,796 feet.”
― Steven Magee

“After working in high altitude astronomy, I was diagnosed with asthma and allergies.”
― Steven Magee

“After routinely being awakened during the night with chest pains, I was diagnosed with Nocturnal Angina and prescribed nitroglycerin.”
― Steven Magee

“After five years of visits to four different sleep doctors, I was eventually diagnosed with positional sleep apnea.”
― Steven Magee

“I had been on the doctor yo-yo for many years regarding fatigue and strange illnesses, but this was sickness on steroids! It was far worse than anything I had seen before. I knew what Dementia was and I knew the end result was not pretty. I had seen my elderly grandfather die from it, but he developed it at a far older age. From being diagnosed to death only took a few years. I started to contemplate that I may not make it to fifty years of age.”
― Steven Magee, Magee’s Disease

“Occupational sickness may entitle you to compensation, even if the sickness took decades to be correctly diagnosed.”
― Steven Magee, Hypoxia, Mental Illness & Chronic Fatigue

“I was diagnosed with a range of sleep disorders after leaving my extreme night shift job.”
― Steven Magee, Night Shift Recovery

“When the body nutrition is off, you will get diagnosed with a wide range of medical conditions because of it and most will disappear when you fix it.”
― Steven Magee

“Small airways disease was diagnosed in me after I spent a decade breathing industrial and medical gas in my professional astronomy jobs.”
― Steven Magee, Toxic Altitude