Thinking back: I am 16 years old. I sit in a cold ER with my mom on a September day. My mom and I are regulars at all the local ERs because, for the past year, I’ve been struggling with a deep, nagging hip pain. It has made…
Some time ago I wrote a column talking about what it was like for a woman with cerebral palsy to seek birth control. I mentioned a few symptoms, like ankle pain and swelling of my breasts, and I expressed frustration at the lack of information I could find about…
On Friday, I wrote about how I finally accepted, positively, my physical therapy. I think I started the intensive physical therapy program two weeks ago today. On Friday, I talked about giving into the therapy program; today I want to gloat a little … About a month ago, I was…
The year is 2000, I am 5 years old. A therapist rolls me back and forth on a huge ball. My back stretches and pops. My legs ache, burn and throb with pain as she hoists my foot up onto her shoulder. “Do you feel a stretch?” She…
Every one who has a chronic illness likely has experienced days when they have not been able to get out of bed because of their pain or feeling sick. It may seem unimaginable, but it can be easy to become bored when you spend days in bed —…
I think the language we use when talking about our disability or chronic illness is very important, regardless of whether we are talking to our doctors or our friends. As people living with a chronic illness we can control, to an extent, how our lives are perceived. It is…
This month, following mountains and mountains of stress, I sat in the waiting room of the specialist I’ve seen for the past 21 years. Over the course of the month I had to medically withdraw from my senior year in college; my physical, mental, and emotional health was…
I’ve struggled for years with some pretty rough skin — acne, oily patches, dryness, acne scarring and redness, uneven skin tone, etc. I tried many store products with little or no improvement, especially in the long term. I even saw a dermatologist briefly and went the route of…
In my last post I discussed the movie Me Before You and suggested that in order to change perceptions about disabled people, more disabled people need to share their experiences. The long story shorter is this: We need more disabled bloggers sharing their lives on the internet. But…
Be warned: The following post contains spoilers.It also contains possible anxiety/stress triggers. In June the movie Me Before You was released. It was based on the 2012 book by the same name and written by author Jojo Moyes. The main character of the movie, Will, becomes disabled after being…