The Document Trail Nobody Tells You to Start
Nobody hands you a binder on the way out of the ER. Here’s the document trail you’ll wish you’d started sooner — and exactly how to build it now.
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The High Price of “I’m Fine” (and Other Retired Phrases in the Chronic Illness Vocabulary)
Some phrases stopped working the moment my body did. Here’s the vocabulary I’ve quietly retired — and what I actually mean now.
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Beyond “Just Coping”: A Better Way to Manage Chronic Illness Stress
If you live with chronic illness, you’ve probably been told to “just cope” more times than you can count. The SMART program — Stress Management and Resiliency Training — is an evidence-based approach that actually works with your physiology instead of ignoring it. Here’s what it is, what I got out of it, and whether it might be worth exploring.
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When Everything Gets Louder: Managing Chronic Illness Flares and Ways to Move Through Them
A chronic illness flare is a period when your symptoms intensify — sometimes gradually, sometimes overnight, sometimes for reasons you can identify and sometimes for absolutely no reason you can name. And if you live with a chronic condition, you already know that flares don’t politely limit themselves to one system. They pile on.
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I Wake Up Missing Spoons
What does it mean to live with a chronic illness and never have enough spoons? Here’s what you need to know.
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My POTS Survival Kit (The Stuff That Actually Helps)
The internet will hand you a firehose of recommendations when you’re newly diagnosed. This is not that. This is what actually lives on my nightstand.
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What POTS Feels Like (From Someone Living It Every Day)
I’m sitting on the edge of my bed. My feet are on the floor. My eyes are open. And I cannot stand up yet.
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Things People Say to Chronically Ill People (And What We Actually Hear)
They mean well. They almost always mean well. That’s what makes it so hard.
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What Is Dysautonomia? (Explained by Someone Who Actually Has It)
Your autonomic nervous system runs everything you never have to think about — heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, temperature. Mine decided to stop cooperating. Here’s what that actually means.
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Who I Am and Why This Blog Exists (Or: How a Nine-Year-Old Fainting Under a Church Pew Started All of This)
I fainted under a church pew at nine years old. My mom thought I was acting up. That was just the beginning of a very long conversation between my body and the medical system — one where I did most of the talking and nobody listened.
