Title: Accepting Change, Embracing Support, and the Banana Mystery That Won’t Quit

This is a deeply personal post, and I want to start by saying thank you. To my friends, my family, my support team—you’ve shown up for me with grace and dignity, and I don’t take that lightly. Whether it’s through practical help, quiet encouragement, or just being a consistent presence, your support has helped me face something hard: the reality that I’m not functioning as highly as I once believed.

Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m still high-functioning in a lot of ways. But one of my conditions, Sjögren’s syndrome, is progressing. And that’s hard. It’s a quiet, relentless reminder that I do live with disability and chronic illness, and that pretending otherwise doesn’t help me anymore.

I’m working with all the right professionals—my doctors, pharmacist, and now a dietitian, too. (Pharmacists, by the way, are wildly underrated. They’ve helped me make sense of side effects and medication changes in ways that actually make sense in day-to-day life.) But even with all this support, there are still challenges. Medication side effects like fatigue and fog are real, and unpredictable. The reality is: healing and managing your health takes a whole team.

But that’s also where some surprising blessings have shown up. One of the biggest has been the NDIS. Through that funding and support, I’ve been able to rediscover my voice—writing this blog, creating a podcast, uploading videos to YouTube, and even experimenting on TikTok. It’s given me purpose, structure, and connection—and let’s be real, connection is what keeps us human.

Speaking of connection: shout out to the family group chat, which is an absolute lifeline. Whether it’s a funny meme, a serious update, or a gentle nudge when I’m not at my best, that little digital thread reminds me every day that I’m not alone in this.

I’ve also been learning some serious life skills. Like the difference between inside thoughts and outside thoughts—and trust me, that one’s a game-changer. Being able to say what I need in a way that’s respectful and clear has made a massive difference, especially in working with my SIL housing team. They listen, they support, and I’ve learned how to advocate for myself without causing tension. It’s still a work in progress, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

But now… let’s address the real issue. The thing no one’s talking about.
The greatest unsolved mystery of my life with disability services:

🍌 The Day Centre Banana Mystery. 🍌

Yes. The bananas.

If you’ve ever been involved with a day program, a support worker, or a shared activity bag, you already know where this is going.

Somehow, somewhere, a banana always ends up in the bag. Sometimes two. They’re never eaten. They go brown. Then black. Then… science-project level moldy. No one packed them. No one remembers seeing them. Yet there they are—lurking, rotting, silently judging.

Every support worker I’ve ever met has their own banana horror story.
Some even joke about them like it’s a rite of passage. Moldy banana in the van? Welcome to the job. Banana that reappears three days after you swore you cleaned everything out? Yeah, you’re not imagining things. This is real.

And then there’s the game of Yahtzee, which somehow also keeps appearing in the same bags. No one’s played it. No one remembers packing it. But it’s there. Just like the banana. Every. Time.

At this point, I’m calling in the big guns.
AJ and Hecklefish from The Why Files—I need you.
Forget ancient aliens. Put Bigfoot on hold. This is a legit mystery.

👉 Why do the bananas always go uneaten?
👉 Who’s putting them in the bags?
👉 And what’s with the travelling Yahtzee set??

Hecklefish, you’ve screamed “Yahtzee!” enough times—it’s time to roll up those fins and help us solve this fruit-based conspiracy.
Is this a rift in the support-time continuum?
A mold-based form of protest from forgotten snacks past?
Or something… darker?

Yhatasi? You tell me.

—

Look, life isn’t always easy. Chronic illness, disability, and self-growth don’t come with a guidebook. But what I’ve learned is that you can change your situation—slowly, intentionally, and with support. First, you have to accept reality. Then, you have to work with what you’ve got. And in between, you have to let yourself laugh—yes, even at bananas.

Thanks for being here while I figure it all out.
And if you’ve got any theories on the banana thing… please. Share them. Humanity needs answers.