Pain to Purpose – a Column by Ellijahna Victoria

Reconciling Faith and Illness: How Cushing’s Turned My Pain Into Purpose

My grandma always said there were two things that mattered in life: God, and finding a rich husband. While I don’t necessarily agree with the latter, religion certainly was a core element of my life — until I was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. I grew up in a…

What to Do When You’re Struggling to Get a Cushing’s Disease Diagnosis

Eight is the number of doctors who didn’t listen.  Five is the number of diagnoses that were wrong. Two is the number of doctors who referred me to a psychiatrist for “making up” too many symptoms. Four is the number of new doctors who finally listened to me and…

Cushing’s Disease Taught Me Lessons I Didn’t Know I Needed to Learn

I used to think happiness was being skinny, in both sickness and in health. Beauty meant pain, and I was willing to suffer for it. Perhaps this superficial outlook on life was caused by my childhood experience of growing up as an ethnic minority and not having anyone that looked…

The Journey to My Cushing’s Diagnosis: The End Was Just the Beginning

Ellijahna Victoria. 27. Former journalist. Writer. Media adviser. Cushing’s survivor. Wait, what? Describing myself as a Cushing’s survivor still feels weird. This wasn’t how my story was supposed to go. But of course, that’s life — things don’t always go as planned. My storm began in late 2015. Back…