Florence Nightingale - May 12th 1820 to August 13th 1910. Commonly known as the founder of modern nursing.
"There is no part of my life, upon which I can look back without pain"
Everybody knows Florence Nightingale as the Lady of the Lamp (which was actually an amazing woman called Mary Seacole, but that's a debate for another day), a brilliant nurse and a promoter for social reformation but not many people know that Florence had Fibromyalgia.
Like many ladies of the time Florence kept a journal depicting her daily life as well as her struggle with chronic pain and fatigue, she was often known to take to her bed for days on end suffering from invisible yet painful ailments and after the Crimean war ended Florence was bedridden with aches, pains and fatigue until her death. It is believed that her FM may have been triggered by a infection she caught whilst in the war hospitals. You may also notice that her birthday May 12th is international Fibromyalgia awareness day.
Now as inspirational women go I think that Florence is a fairly good role model anyway (...I will not get into a Mary Seacole debate), but to have done everything she did; to fight for womens rights in medicine, cleanliness and organisation in field medicine and social reforms, whilst suffering with FM and CF just makes it all a whole lot more impressive.
So when you feel that you just can't, that your illness just won't let you, remember old Flo.
No comments:
Post a Comment