So, I ventured to the Dollar Store and found some beauty items I wanted to try. For context, have combination sensitive skin, with some dry patches. Here are the products I picked up and my overall review of them. Enjoy! 

Who doesn't enjoy trying a new mascara for cheap? I flip between brands constantly, not yet finding the perfect one. This interested me because of it being a Serum Infuaed Mascara with Peptides and Vitamin E. I enjoy the brush itself as I've never had success with plastic ones. You can really build this one up and it doesn't smudge too easily. It can clump if you aren't careful applying it. 

Solid 7/10 for me.  

Cheap and cheerful, 8/10.

Worth a shot, 5/10.

Silken skin for 9, Alex. 9/10.

100% recommend, 10/10.

I'd been seeing this Spa Luxury Brazilian Sol Body Butter pop up routinely in online dollar store hauls and with good reason.  This is a thick non-sticky butter that rivals some that I have gotten from Lush. It absorbs quickly and leaves a little shine to dull skin. The packaging is also very cute. 

Wish the smell was stronger, 9/10. 

So there's my haul. Some wins and some losses. Have you found any Dollar Store gems? Do let me know. 

- Anne. X

OT has been a great help in showing me how to safely do daily tasks that offer me more independence; dressing, showering, cooking, etc. There's something about independence that helps you mentally when going through health issues. When I put on a cardigan for the first time without help, I cried. It felt monumental. Cherish those small victories. Nothing is too silly.

So, yeah. Today I walked up four steps which gives me the option of watching TV in a different room. Will I? Probably not as I never did before, but I have the option and that's a reward in and of itself.

Oh, cute workout clothes help too. Just FYI. 

"I don't appreciate clouds enough", words I said today whilst sitting in my wheelchair under the puffs of white decorating the blue sky. I spent the better end of 7 months in the hospital. You know in that Buffy part in 'Once More With Feeling' when she sings "hey, I died twice"? Yeah, I did that three times. Not to start a competition, but hey, I'd win. I just don't have the nifty slayer powers. 

It started with some poor judgment on my side (which I'll get into in a future post as I have yet to find the right words) and a bipap vomiting situation. But for context let's start with my initial hospital stay. I went in on November 11^th, 2025.because my body was losing strength. I could not hold down food, my body was swelling uncontrollably which was causing my kidneys to be a risk due to my illness of acute intermittent Porphyria. My stomach was loaded with acid and I was overall not doing well. I had been hospitalized earlier in the year for similar symptoms but not half as as bad as this time. The only option was to put me on a ventilator to promote oxygen. My nausea was a constant battle I'd been facing for close to a year but it was getting to the point of me being unable to eat or drink anything. Did I mention I was seriously weak? Enter here the bipap machine. I was left unattended and threw up into the thing, causing it to shoot the fluid back down into my lungs causing sever damage.

This all led to them putting me on life support, hoping to restore some of the damage caused to my lungs. Then I had a heart attack. My body was under too much stress turning it into a lethal weapon to itself. I got through it. Once seen as stable enough, they pulled me off sedation. 

The rest is fuzzy to both me and my loved ones. I remember celebrating when I could finally hold a spoon to feed myself soup. The pain and misgivings of learning to walk again, as my body had detreated from being put under. Regaining the strength felt like a long process. I wish I knew that'd be the easy part.

 I was two days before getting released, on Christmas eve no less, when I  could a cold. Given my immune system not being up to par, it immediately turned into pneumonia. It felt like a snap of the fingers and I was backtracking again. My scans were gradually getting worse. I was desatting. My oxygen levels were getting alarmingly low again, but my husband vouched for no bipap machine given the first time. I was moved from the ARU back to the ICU. I was getting worse and worse so they put me back under in the hopes that it'd give my body time to recover. So here I was again, back on ventilator, back on ECMO (Extra Corporeal membrane oxygenation), and playing the waiting game.

I don't remember anything when I was under, I know some people do and others don't. I think I'm fortunate to be the latter. My Mother went through a similar medical experience and remembers every minute of being locked inside her own mind. How she isn't without sanity for that is beyond my understanding. It takes a lot of strength.

They did their best working on my lungs, but with no avail. So the next plan of action was looking for a lung transplant, but most places were declining. Weeks past and they were unable to find anything. Some might say it is miraculous but my scans were starting to come back a bit better; spotted compared to the white out of the initial x-rays. I was healing. After some discussion they decided it was time to ween me off off of sedation, but alas, I was taking too long to wake up. That had happened on the first go around so they somewhat brushed it off as "normal" for me. Then upon request from one of my doctors, who remains to be a Godsend in this, they did a scan of my head. I had suffered a really bad stroke. 

Slowly over time, I started to come to. My eyes would flicker and my husband was trying to find any inkling that I was still me. Strokes are terrifying and kill vital parts of you. They did test after test which involved various painful methods that were necessary to see if my body was responding. I remember flashes of this time. The odd memory comes randomly to me but overall I lost at least 4 months of memory. 

It took a few weeks, then months, but I recovered. I'm still recovering.

I lost my ability to talk, move, communicate. I was a shell of a body but still me inside. It was isolating and incredibly frustrating. We had to come up with a letter system so I could attempt to ask questions. I was drugged up most of the time which led to a lot of confusion. I wanted to go home, whether that be in America or the UK. I just wanted out. I wished I had died, often. It felt too hard to continue on like I was. Nothing was working right and I couldn't control it. 

Time moved forward, as it does. I was transferred between hospitals and rehab centers due to insurance problems. Don't get sick in the US, dear reader. It is a clusterfuck. In June of 2026 I was finally home. Things have been rough but we're managing. I have a nurse, occupational therapist, and physical therapist visit me weekly at home. I go to a dialysis clinic four times a week to routinely clean my blood and remove fluid that my body remains to retain. I suppose I'm still losing time if you factor in the hours I spend doing these things weekly. But, I'm lucky. Beyond lucky. 

I've grown up with a hatred for my body but after this whole story, I have a decent amount of respect for it's strength. Against all odds, I shouldn't be here typing this. I should be gone. There is no conceivable answer as to why I chose to keep fighting. My loved ones, obviously. But I'm a weak person. I always have been. I wear my heart on my sleeve and even Fibromyalgia (you can read about that HERE) makes my body frail. I don't believe in subjects that most people would coin this as, but I do believe in fate. I think almost losing my life made me have a life. Hence the appreciation of the clouds today and the strength to write this out and return to online journaling. 

I'm now 30 years old. You'll find me journaling like crazy so I don't forget anything, reading to escape into other people's minds, going on weekly outing to experience the world, and writing to find solace in words again.

Hi, it's me. Anne. Let's look up at the stars next.