Ashley Jenkins is our final Chronic Resilience contest honoree. We were very moved by Ashley’s tribute which demonstrates how important it is to share our stories and connect. Take it away Ashley… I consider myself an extremely lucky individual; yes, I suffer from a horrible disease known as Gastroparesis, but…
Aimee Ward is one of our Chronic Resilience contest honorees. She has written a touching essay about the power of those that are closest to us to see past our flaws and know exactly what we need. Take it away Aimee… If I had to pick a person who inspires…
THANK YOU to everyone that submitted an essay for our Chronic Resilience Essay Contest! You have some amazing, supportive, inspiring people in your lives and we were absolutely touch by your tributes to them! Contest submissions ended July 26th and we have selected our 3 winners!! 1st Place Grand Prize…
I was originally going to call this post, “Find Your Own Miracle.” But then I sat dumbfounded staring at the screen trying to figure out exactly what I meant. My health, at this point, is not trending toward the miraculous. It is headed for the predicted. In my case that…
I recently read Bossypants by Tina Fay. It is a really funny book. Toward the end of the book she has two chapters titled: Remembrances of Being Very Very Skinny Remembrances of Being a Little Bit Fat Both are less than two full pages. Mainly a list of things she…
It is easy to overlook unconditional supporters who cope with your illness right along with you. They too feel stressed, shed tears, ask questions and advocate for your health. This is an especially heartfelt job for a mom. I have no clue how my mom managed the medical intricacies and…
Next week I’ll be back to stress-free, chronic illness lifestyle blogging, and I’ve got some great posts brewing… 5 Ways to Make Healthy Living Simpler (who couldn’t use a few time-savers) –and– What We Can Learn about Affirmations from the Placebo Effect This week’s posts were taken up by doctor’s…
At 8pm last night, the tears came. Of course they would come. Phillip was there. He sat close. Stayed quiet. He let me cry. I wiped my tears with my wrinkled dinner napkin and stared off into space. I choked out how weird it is to feel relatively healthy and…
While my body presents lots of challenges, it also has me in complete awe. The moment something doesn’t work correctly, you become aware of just how amazing its function was…all without having to consciously think about anything. Day-in-and-day-out our bodies work tirelessly to do millions of huge and tiny things…
The term “let go” has been tossed around in self-help circles a lot. Usually as in, “just let it go.” This vague term is used as a prescription for decreasing stress. Because it is fuzzy, it is can also be a frustrating statement. Prompting the response, “if I could just…