A few years ago, I stumbled across this meme:

When I stopped laughing, I realized that I needed to get my proverbial poop in a group and start learning how to be the best possible zookeeper I could be for myself.

See, I gave up for a while.

I wasn’t getting help from healthcare providers with the main chronic illness that I’ve been battling my entire life: PCOS. So I kept firing doctors who wouldn’t listen and wouldn’t help, and learned as much as I could on my own.

And damn was that exhausting.

Because there was life, and work, and relationships, and and and.

Figuring out what would make my body cooperate with me just wasn’t working and wasn’t helping.

Over the last few years, though, I’ve adopted a gentler approach with myself.

Instead of trying to FIX IT, I’m just trying to work with it all. And wow, is there a lot to work with, LOL.

Recently, I learned that I’m in an early stage of chronic kidney disease, so between that and navigating perimenopause, it’s more urgent than ever for me to practice daily the habits and tasks that help me to be a good zookeeper for myself.

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