Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists. Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.
Today’s prompt reads as follows:
Theme Song…Imagine your health focus or blog is getting its own theme song. Think “Eye of the Tiger” for Rocky Balboa. What would the lyrics be? What type of music would it be played to?
This is a tough question…how do you find a theme song for a condition, which is for one unusual and rare, and secondly one in which you do not entirely understand yourself?
Then, I though that I would base my choice of theme song on the experience of living with my particular condition. For example, the weakness in my leg; this is one of my main symptoms and one which causes the greatest burden in my life. The burden that it places, is largely due to the severe weakness and trembling in the legs – for example, I am unable to stand for very long and are known for giving way on me without any warning and at the most inconvenient times. This has led to many falls in public; as well as falls down the stairs and even whilst walking up the stairs! These falls have been increasing in number recently, you can read a previous post entitled ‘Falling Down a Vortex‘ which describes my experience of my condition as it is currently, as well as describing a recent fall down the stairs I had in which my Kindle bared the brunt of the damage as it is beyond repair as a result.
The majority of the time after a fall, I am left unable to get straight back up because of the fatigue and weakness in my body, that the condition has left me with. However, no matter how long it takes me to recover from a fall, I do eventually rise and get back up. And so, that is the reason why I selected the one-hit wonder ‘Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down) by Chumbawamba) as the theme song for my condition. Perhaps not the entire song, mind you (especially as it is a song about drinking and getting drunk! Honestly my falls are because of a medical condition and not because I am inebriated), but just the following lyrics taken from the song:
I get knocked down
But I get up again
You’re never going to keep me down
These lyrics, in my opinion, reflects life with any chronic illness. Chronic illness, forces us to be knocked down a lot of the time by worsening symptoms, as well as being knocked down emotionally. But just as the song suggests, we eventually get up again. We are all fighters. We are all survivors. And as fighters and survivors we never allow our illnesses beat us and keep us down for long.
The song is also extremely catchy, and just like any catchy song, it is one you cannot get out of your head – just like chronic illnesses. We are unable to forget about it; and it is in our heads constantly, just like an upbeat unforgettable pop song!
Here is a video of the said song for you to enjoy!:
As a note, I would like the opportunity to publicly thank Amazon UK who after hearing about my accident and my broken Kindle, very kindly offered a replacement one free of charge! It was so lovely of them and cannot thank them enough for their amazing generosity!
