Meet Brigida
By: Becca Savransky
Tags: Endometriosis, Homelessness

How did you end up on the streets in Seattle?

I grew up in Alaska and I moved to the Seattle area 2015. I moved here because my doctor is at Virginia Mason and so it was to get better medical care, but also a new fresh start. When I moved here I would get jobs here and there, but I just kept losing my jobs, if not the first time I’d have a flare up and be in the hospital then the second time, or maybe the third time. And so it came to a point that I just kind of went through the savings that I had and couldn’t get another job because people didn’t want to hire me since my medical condition.

What do you need most now?

Help with rent and then our electricity, that’s the main thing. And just really food, daily things like that.

What have been some challenges you have faced dealing with your illness?

I myself have had a lot of struggles with people taking me seriously both in the medical field and out. My [endometriosis] was so bad — normally it stays in the pelvic area — but mine is kind of everywhere and it made my gallbladder fail. So I got my diagnosis when I got my gallbladder removed and the doctor took biopsies he was just like ‘Yea, she has it.’…It’s an invisible disease.

When it comes to women and saying ‘Oh, I’m having pelvic pain,’ [doctors] just think, ‘Oh it’s cramping and she’s being a baby about it.’ I don’t totally know where that came from, but sadly it’s I think how it kind of is.

I’m in a support group…There’s so many stories of women laying in the fetal position not able to move because they’re in so much pain, because it really feels like there’s a hot knife being twisted around in your body and the pain from it is just excruciating and doctors just totally walk away, wipe it off like it’s nothing. Or they’ll be like oh take Advil, or have you tried yoga or something like that, like it’s really nothing at all and then they get surgeries, and they have organs failing and they have blood clots and it’s, I don’t know where it started but it seems to be a pretty common experience of women with endometriosis and really other diseases that have to do with that. We’re just kind of looked at as the weaker sex which is odd, but it’s the sad reality I think.

Do you have any advice you’d like to share?

Plan more for the future even though that’s very hard to do in this situation. It really is. I was panhandling, I didn’t know where I was going to get my next meal so it was very hard for me to think about the future much further than a day or two but I think that’s just important.

It’s really really hard when you’re [homeless] to think that there’s a way out. I know when I started staying in my car I thought it was going to be like for a month, maybe two, And so once it passed that first Christmas, that first holiday season, I kind of got into thinking, I’m never going to get out of this, I’m never going to have a home again. Just taking advantage of the resources and just kind of talking to other people and seeing what’s going to work best for you…I think Seattle has a lot of resources, it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you

As far as dealing with the medical aspect of it — there’s no reason to be embarrassed to ask a doctor about things, because honestly it took me kind of ignoring my doctor back in Alaska and looking out on my own and reaching out to doctors to be taken seriously. Just ask, there’s no harm in asking and you’ll feel a lot better when you do.

Is there anything or anyone that has kept you motivated through your time on the streets?

My dog. I found her as a stray. Somebody actually had tied her to a bush when it was like 96 degrees outside and just totally abandoned her. Ever since I had had her, I had been kind of moving to different areas because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to live, so I was renting RVs in different RV parks in different areas and so I was always in a small area and then when I started living in my car, she was happy just to be with me and have her food and get to play and get to go on walks, but I wanted more for her. I didn’t want her to be cold anymore and I didn’t want her to have to struggle in any way.

She’s like my baby, she really is. I can’t have kids and I found her six months after my hysterectomy when I was looking for a dog to kind of take care of something other than myself and kind of fill that void. I just wanted better for not only me and my boyfriend, but my dog. I didn’t want her to be cold anymore. She’s so much happier now that we’re in the apartment. She’s so much happier.

What are your goals moving forward?

If I get the disability, then to find some sort of temp agency I can work here and there, or maybe even just volunteer, but something to make me feel like a more productive member of society. After being homeless, people just look down on homeless people so much, so when I was homeless, I would always try and clean up and stuff like that and change people’s perception. But then, if I get denied for disability, again, try and find a temp agency but try to work more…Trying whatever I can to provide for myself as best as I can. I’ve been controlled by my medical condition for so long that I just kind of want to feel like I have more control over my life.

[If I ended up volunteering], I would say really just anything with animals or anything working with the homeless.

What are some of your hobbies or interests?

I like a lot of outdoors things like hiking and fishing and camping and kayaking, and with [my dog], taking her to the dog parks and things like that. I like to get her more socialized and experience things with her, take her to different places.

How does it feel to know every day city residents are investing in your life?

It’s nice because I feel like a lot of the time — I panhandled and I would get a lot of negative comments and a lot of mean things said and done to me — and so it’s kind of nice to know that people are taking the time to see my story and see that I’m still a person and to have, really more than the money, it’s just them, knowing that they care, at least enough to read my story and help out. There’s been people that have send me messages and things like that, so it’s really nice, because when you’re in that situation, you get kicked a lot and so it’s nice to have somebody reach out and be positive and treat you like a human.