Tag Archives: living with

I Am Among the #MillionsMissing

I miss hiking. Getting into the woods, to the enveloping strength of nature, was my favorite thing to do. I wanted to through-hike the Appalachian Trail. I miss more weddings, graduations, and funerals than I can count. I miss having … Continue reading

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#MillionsMissing

For as long as I have been an ME/CFS advocate, I have heard people say we should protest/take to the streets/be more like ACT UP. But for the most part, demonstrations have been small (even one woman) shows. That is … Continue reading

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How I Sleep At Night

One of the great incongruities of ME/CFS is that despite our bone-crushing brain-stealing fatigue, we are frequently unable to sleep. And if we do sleep, the quality of the sleep is very poor. This quickly sets up an escalating feedback … Continue reading

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Epic Eye Roll

I had a shocking experience at a doctor’s office yesterday. It was my first visit to his office for an issue unrelated to ME/CFS. After breezing into the room and making a sarcastic remark about the quality of doctors’ notes … Continue reading

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We Are All Noncompliant

I learned something about ME/CFS advocacy from a comic book. Now wait, stay with me. I realize this sounds bizarre, especially coming from me. I haven’t read a comic book since I was eight years old. Enter Bitch Planet, a … Continue reading

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Collaborative Effort Announced

I take the responsibility of advocacy very seriously, and collaborating with others is part of my philosophy. This effort is an organic evolution of work by many other advocates that have come before us. More than ever before, 2015 has … Continue reading

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Saying No

How To Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness is Toni Bernhard’s latest book. I’ve reviewed Toni’s previous books (here, here, and here), but over the course of years, Toni has become one of my most beloved friends. So while … Continue reading

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A Year of Thanks

This year has been hard, y’all. HARD. Sometimes I think that my Mom’s death took a scoop of my soul along with her. And then just over six months later, my husband (my caregiver, my best friend, my everything) had … Continue reading

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21

October 6, 2015 was my 21st “sickaversary.” I know the date because the onset of ME/CFS in my case was so sudden and dramatic. Not a single doctor told me that I could be sick for years. Not a single … Continue reading

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A Miracle, and a Break

This year has been the most difficult of my life, starting with my Mom’s passing in January. Losing her was just the first in a cascade of bad news, and I made the decision to stop maintaining that laundry list … Continue reading

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