After so many years of battling with depression, it shouldn’t fail to surprise me that I can be so horribly wrong about its power and the lies it tells. I’d like to think that after so many years of fighting the good fight, I’d achieved some kind of mastery over
I didn’t want to be here right now. After a year and a half of hell of dealing with a mental illness that wasn’t my own and dealing with the aftermath of that; of trying to get my abdominal pain resolved once and for all and getting partial resolution (which
One of the most difficult things I have encountered recently is not the challenges caused by life situations, or the challenges associated with health problems. The challenges that rock my world are more fundamental ones: ones that don’t require a chronic illness to understand, but ones that may be part
The main symptom of the disaster was the kitchen. For the past four weeks, supplies from the constantly aborted deck painting project mingled with dirty dishes, even though not much food was eaten. Food was a source of rough comfort when remembered: an accompaniment to the usual pain pills, and
It was June 25th when I boarded the plane for Australia, where I had spent 30 years of my youth growing up. I hadn’t been there in 14 years. I hadn’t seen members of my family in 13 years (14 years in some cases). I wanted to do this, but
I have mentally begun this post for weeks, but a chronically ill life has a way of shaking loose any idea of control over one’s destiny. Anyone who has been ill for a while will understand what I mean when I say I’m suffering a bad case of doctor fatigue.
A watermark is an outline of the tide’s advance and retreat. In some ways I feel like I am part of that outline, lying at low ebb, among the beautiful broken detritus of the sea. These last weeks I have been merely functioning: meeting the very real needs of the
I wrote this post back on January 6, 2013. I suppose like anyone who is considered medically obese, I get nervous giving an audience ammunition. However, I’ve let that fear go enough to believe this needs to be said. This post began as a quiet plea – now it is
I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 17 #HAWMC – Go to https://www.wordle.net/ to create a word cloud or tree from a list of words associated with your condition, blog, or interests. Post it! Click on the wordle to view it in a larger size.
I’m taking part in WEGO Health’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge Day 14 #HAWMC – Thank a few of your fellow Health Activists for what they have done. Call them out by name or twitter handle. Share your love. I concur with many of my fellow health activists, and as I