*CW: ableism, self-doubt, self-esteem issues, mental health, chronic pain. Some days I’m funny and I write funny things on my blog. And some days I do the opposite of that, like right now. Some days I feel like a failure. Some days I feel like a fraud. Some days I feel okay. Some days I […] Read more…
There is no right or wrong way to react to being diagnosed with a disease. Everyone lives differently and everyone grieves differently. When I was diagnosed with a disease I held onto that diagnosis like it was a life vest and I was thrown overboard into an unforgiving ocean because that is honestly what it […] Read more…
You are probably already aware that I have gastroparesis because I hashtag every single one of my instagram posts #gastroparesis even if the posts are about random things like a new iron-on patch for my jean jacket. With that being said, I should probably tell you that I have a new iron-on patch for my […] Read more…
*Books won’t actually physically cure you of a disease. “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” – Joan Didion I have kind of a love/hate relationship with books about illnesses. I flock to them like a seagull flocks to a McDonald’s parking lot, but most of the time I come away feeling disappointed, probably also like […] Read more…
I have been trying to come up with ways to reach a broader audience (like people who don’t want to read 7 page long blog posts) so I decided to turn some of those blog posts into videos. I know that there are a million vlogs out there, but I really got the push to […] Read more…
I’m currently sitting in my armchair with a heating pad wrapped around my hip, an ice pack velcroed around my neck, and a large “cooling pad” tucked into that neck ice pack to form a makeshift cone of chillness, which is kind of like a dog cone but for human adults whose musculoskeletal systems want to […] Read more…
An edited and much less sarcastic version of this essay was published last year on xoJane. You can find it here: http://www.xojane.com/issues/chronic-illness-isnt-made-up Yesterday was Rare Disease Day so I spent a lot of time reading stories and watching videos by people who were diagnosed with rare diseases. Across the board, most people had something in common: […] Read more…
One of my blog readers messaged me earlier this week to tell me that my blog has helped her (you da best). She told me that she has a lot of trouble talking openly about her illness and how it affects her, and because I am so open about my own health it has given her a […] Read more…
You know that saying, “when one door closes, another door opens?” Or “when one door closes, a window opens,” or whatever the hell that saying is? Well life with multiple chronic illnesses has a somewhat similar saying, and it goes like this: “When one door opens, another door opens, and then a window opens, and […] Read more…
I’m a worrier. I worry about how clean my house is, I worry about all the books on my bookshelf that I haven’t read yet, I worry about whether or not I’m a good friend, I worry about what my third grade teacher thought of me. So as a blogger, naturally there are bloggery things […] Read more…