Clare Gibson

Close up of Trudy (smooth collie dog) smiling and the camera while inside a white cone adorned with red bones

Year 14: day 208: Trudy keeps scratching her wound and make it bleed again, so the cone of shame is back. She is not happy about it but was happy when she saw me after doggie daycare

Waddles the finch inside circle wearing a backpack and carrying a green flag. She is saying “Do you know what I've discovered on all these adventures? You're the best, cheep!” Underneath the circle it says “350 adventures completed”. At the top of the screen is an illustration of the Serengeti complete with a lion, giraffe, antelope and yellow jeep

Me and Waddles (the self care pet I got to encourage me to do my physiotherapy exercises regularly) have now completed 350 adventures together. Yay me!

Mural of moose riding a blue and red train through the mountains

Year 14: day 207: in honour of Josh’s birthday recently, my pic of the day is one of his murals in Richie created last year at Edmonton mural festival (yes, I edited out two windows cos they were bugging me 😂)

Naked sexy blue panda wearing high heels sat on white stage with deep blue background

Year 14: day 206: sexy panda

Trudy (smooth collie) dog sitting on couch staring out of the window. The window reveals the trees outside.

Year 14: day 205: “Oh outdoors, how I long for you”

Don’t worry @drbillgibson.bsky.social took her for walkies when he got home

Clare with frame neatly complete and ready for flowers

Progress with my frame was better today…

💕

Ow that looks sore. Hope you are doing good resting xx

Jellycat Jack cosy tucked in the duvet

Year 14: day 204: my pictures have maybe been a bit lacklustre recently as my body has been dealing with a lot. I am 8 days post surgery, still bleeding and yesterday I also dislocated shoulder. Last night I slept for 13 hours and this is what I woke up to 😂

Clare holding brown brick frame

Instruction book for sunflower photo frame

I may be tired and still bleeding from my surgery last week, have zero proprioception and limited hand mobility with bilaterally fused wrists and thumbs but I just the first bag on my Lego like sunflower frame all by myself

Sloth plushie sat on couch with her hands behind her head

Year 14: day 203: Bob (Roberta) sloth just chillaxin’

Potato hash and Brussels sprouts on giraffe plate arranged like hair

Year 14: day 202: when your leftovers become a work of art

Things I would not recommend: accidentally putting your finger right in your open wound.

If anyone needs me, I will be over here not sleeping and saying owww

Snow falling in front of evergreen trees

Year 14: day 201: it has been a very snowy winter

Large turquoise Pokémon with many antlers standing in front of green and blue antiqued background

Year 14: day 200: Today my body demanded rest so I have been recuperating in bed while finishing off the Pokémon event. This is my new shiny Xerneas that I photographed in the shower and then added some effects 😂

Easter display of fake grass, flowers, eggs and a bunny

Year 14: day 199: hopping towards Easter

I have lived with this long enough now though that I won’t take shit from anyone about it and am planning on celebrating my inner zebra with a new tattoo later in the year.

(6/6)

suggesting that when you are diagnosing something you should think of common problems not rare ones. It is this mentality that saw me ignored, disbelieved and dismissed by many medical professionals and judged by former colleagues, peers and friends.

(5/6)

my dermatologist calls me sunshine and tells me that I am much less grumpy than many of his patients.

The symbol of Ehlers Danlos, like some other rare diseases, is the zebra. The reason for this is a medical phrase coined a long time ago “when you hear hoof beats, think horses not zebras”

(4/6)

While I would rather I hadn’t had to spend 26 years dealing with it, it has put me in good stead for dealing with my other chronic but less rare illnesses. My therapist tells me how well developed my coping mechanisms are and

(3/6)

The theme of Rare Diseases day 2026 is More Than You Could Imagine and the impact of it on my life both the big and small is more than most could imagine or deal with.

(2/6)

It’s Rare Diseases Day. I have lived with the effects of Ehlers Danlos syndrome my whole adult life. That includes multiple operations to fuse joints, multiple dislocations, pain, abnormal skin and bowels.

(1/6)

Shiny Pokémon

Latios and latías

Clare and Bill

Sloth plushie peeping out of pink bag

Pokemoning in the mall…

(The pain / painkiller combo from being 3 days post-surgery made me puke up) so Bill kindly bought me a vomit-free top and a Kristen (Bob) the sloth

Selfie of Clare and Trudy (smooth collie) dog

Selfie of Clare and Trudy (smooth collie) dog

Selfie of Clare and Trudy (smooth collie) dog

Selfie of Clare and Trudy (smooth collie) dog

2 girls both with open wounds

Klydoclock featuring orange monkey hugging black monkey. In front of the clock is an aboriginal painted monkey statue

Year 14: day 198: 3 monkeys

I’m am so excited & relieved to get Bill back from his travels soon.

Excited: he’s the love of my life & I really want to see, hug & kiss him

Relieved: being home alone with 2 lesions deroofed on Thurs to look after as well as Trudy dog’s cyst is a lot. Immense amounts of fortitude have been used

Toonized selfie of Clare holding a plushier consisting of 5 different coloured flowers each with happy faces in a basket which says “mood support flowers”. The photo is in black and white except for the flowers which are in colour

Year 14: day 197: sometimes you have to accept that life can be a bit tough from a medical standpoint and buy yourself some mood support flowers 🥰😊

Selfie of Clare waving whilst wearing a hot pink surgical glove

I am looking after both my open wounds (plural) and Trudy dog’s open wound (singular). I really don’t want anything to transfer from one to the other so got these rather fetching gloves 😂

Thank you ☺️