Amanda Canzurlo, who uses the stage name of Bloom, was diagnosed with glandular fever at the age of 16. After being bedridden for approximately 8-10 weeks she was then diagnosed with ME/CFS. Back then, before Facebook and widespread internet use, there wasn’t much easily accessible research, patient information or support services.
When Amanda returned to high school, she averaged one day off a week in her senior studies and would fall asleep in class. This led to her needing to reduce her study load of senior subjects, as she lacked the energy and memory function to complete her studies. She said that she lost the ability for a short time for her brain to convert information from short term to long term memory and had to resort back to rote learning. She said she also had to re-learn how to have a conversation. Not being able to find words to communicate knocked her confidence. Amanda was planning to go to university straight out of school to study nursing but couldn’t because she wasn’t able to complete her exams.
Amanda says that her memory has improved over time, but that managing her energy envelope is the hardest aspect of the disease. Now as a full-time touring artist her lifestyle is much like shift work and she needs to listen to her body and pace. It was a long road to get to the version of herself today and she still needs to focus on actively managing her ME/CFS.
Join Anne Wilson with Bloom in this uplifting conversation wrapped in her most beautiful version of John Lennon’s Imagine.
