My first post!

Hello and welcome to Kat the Zebra!

As you have likely guessed I am Kat, and believe it or not, I am also a zebra. No, I am not claiming to be a striped equine from Africa, as it happens, I am a human being, living in the Mid-western U.S, but I am still a zebra, just a slightly different variety. To explain this I should share this very old quote, which has been attributed to many people over the year. "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras" This is a simple theory, and unless you happen to live in one of a few select areas of Africa is likely very true, it is a phrase which is taught to doctors, so that, when it looks like you have the flu, they first check that, rather than a highly rare disease which has the same symptoms. This works great for the vast majority of the time, but sometimes it is the rare virus, and in my case, it was (and is) a disease called Ehlers Danlos, which according to the U.S National Library of Medicine, affects approximately 1 in 5,000 people worldwide. Specifically, I live with type 3 or the hypermobile variety, which is one of the most prevalent varieties, and means I have problems with spontaneous dislocations and subluxations, as well as highly premature arthritis, among many MANY other problems which I will go over in later posts.   

So now that you understand the zebra part of my blog’s name, you may very well be wondering who “Kat” is. Fair enough, I am a Christian, a young aspiring writer (historical fiction) and aspiring Etsy seller, (and blogger obviously:)). I’m an introverted teacher, as I help teach the kids at my Church, and helped educate people at my local zoo for a year, all of which I loved, but I would still gladly curl up on the sofa with my dog, a hot cup of tea, and a good book to recharge, and I don’t exactly see a lot of people on a daily basis except for my family, and I’m good with that! A dyslexic writer, who still struggles with semi-basic spelling occasionally, and is polishing off her first novel. As well as a shameless nerd and yes I will own that fact freely, after all I come from a long proud line of geeks and nerds, my aunt is a Trekkie, and my Grandma, brother, and mom are (or were) all proud Whovians, while my dad is into Star Wars, and I take after my mom AND aunt here. I’m also one of those people who research history for fun, as well as the pseudo-accuracy of my books.   

Basically I’m just a human being as I assume you are if you are reading this, with unique likes and dislikes, speaking of which, here are a few things I love and which will inevitably end up in many of my posts: animals (pets and wild), books, and just taking in the beauty of God’s creations all around me and photographing it. Yes I am also someone who lives with (or suffers with as many would say) EDS and yes this in some ways has changed who I may have been, and made me who I am, and yes I’m gonna talk about that here as well, but this is about my life, and EDS is part of my life. Know however that I don’t blame all my shortfalls on EDS, nor is this ever meant to be a “Poor me” spot, rather this is a place where I’ll talk about what life looks like with an invisible diseases, hopefully raise a bit of awareness for it, and just talk about life, with all it’s ups and downs, ‘Cause although I may be different in the collagen department, I’m still just a Christian trying to make it through life the best that I can, without losing my mind so if you’d like to read along with me please feel free to read on, and see where this blog takes us.

Have a lovely day!

Kat