Hi, I'm Alana and I'm bad at writing these things.

I'm a mid-20s spoonie originally from Florida but now living in Maryland. A little about me? I massive Avatar the Last Airbender nerd and love to play the Sims in my free time. The white dog in the photo is my retiring service dog Bridgette who I've had for going on 7 years, she's my best friend.

I've been living with chronic illness technically my entire life but mostly since I was 11. Two weeks into 6th grade the stomach pain I had been having for months got a lot worse and I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease in the Fall of 2009. From there I was in and out of school for the next 7 years and my health only continued to get worse despite surgery and exhausting nearly every medication. Eventually, my health forced me to leave school. Over the next several years I developed and/or was diagnosed with Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (Previously a congenital heart rhythm condition), POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Migraine and Vestibular Migraines, Spondyloarthritis, Hearing Loss (due to a medication reaction), a complex allergy condition with no name, PTSD, and others.

It always seemed like the only mentality those with chronic illness are allowed to have is the one of overcoming your limits and that your illness shouldn't define you, and I felt like I was failing for so long because I couldn't do those things. How can you when every aspect of your life is dictated by your illnesses? I think the best advice someone with an illness can get is that limits are good- they help you learn where you can go; and that it's ok for your illness to become part of your identity- when you learn to accept it as part of you, you can learn to move through life with it.

I started Spoon Culture for many reasons, but my main drive is to find ways to help others like me. I designed my first symptom journal after struggling to find one for years, and after encouragement from an online group I decided to open my Etsy shop soon after- I couldn't have imagined where it led.