The Best Thing You Can Say or Do When Someone’s in Pain
Living with chronic pain is incredibly difficult. It’s invisible, which means that in order to be understood, you have to tell people about it and that’s when you hit another barrier. How do you put into words something that is pure sensation and unlike anything the average person has experienced? But on the other side…
8 Practical Ways You Can Help Someone with Chronic Illness
When you have a chronic illness, asking for help can feel like a mine field. Likewise, if you want to help someone you care about who has a chronic illness, offering it has its own challenges. But finding a way to help and accept help can start to build bridges of understanding, of connection, and…
From Helplessness to Hope with Chronic Illness: 5 Strategies to Push Back Depression
I had a rough entry into the holidays. The fates conspired to send me a number of events over which I had little control. On top of already existing stress, plus having slammed it into overdrive to prepare for the holidays, my body (and mind) had had enough. So I got sick. Or rather, I…
#ChronicChristmas Gift Guide Day 9: The Gift Only You Can Give
Description: An hourglass on a beach, right by the surf. Image has the number 9 is a circle and the hashtag #ChronicChristmas This is my daily Advent calendar of gift ideas for people with chronic illness, running from December 1-25. Some entries will contain affiliate links. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending some time…
Sex and RA: Asking for Help with a Delicate Issue
Updates June 12, 2020 We all have at least one. Your nemesis, if you will. That one thing that you can’t do because of your chronic illness or disability. Well, of course there are probably more than one, but the others may not bother you is much. Or maybe you found a way around it….
Silent Poetry Reading: for Claire
Updated November 10,2021 Every year (more or less) on this day, I participate in the Bloggers Silent Poetry Reading on the Feast of St. Brigid. I’ve never been able to find out how it originated, but went with the flow of what I saw around me, posting poems I liked. I’ve posted an ode to…