I’m once more participating in A Chronic Voice’s writing prompts. This month’s words are: summarizing, crossing, moving, rebuilding, and expecting. I’ve been thinking about writing about pacing for a while now, and these words felt useful for that process. When the summary is too short So to summarize what most doctors tell their patients: “You…
This post is a response to Sheryl Chan of A Chronic Voice’s October writing prompts. This month’s terms are: disabling, enabling, committing, communicating, and reinventing. The first time I heard of Covid-19, my niece brought it to my attention. It was late December 2019, and she showed me a news article discussing this new virus…
For many of us who become disabled, the recognition and acceptance process isn’t easy, and all too often, employment and disability are inextricably linked. For many of us, part of becoming disabled is losing our employment. The grief and loss of becoming disabled is often entangled deeply with the loss of income, and often the…
Introduction by Alison As I have shared in previous posts, I have been living with Functional Neurological Disorder since 2000, and was diagnosed in July 2003. At that time, the condition was poorly understood, and my neurologist had few recommendations for me. Over the years, I found and explored many treatment options, many of which helped…
Functional Neurological Disorder is a common but poorly understood condition. Being diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder isn’t just overwhelming for you as the patient, but it also can be a challenge for your doctor as well. The symptoms look like neurological symptoms(each FNDer may have a different symptom set), but don’t have the usual causes…
When writing my post about stress-related medical conditions, I went down an intellectual rabbit hole that I wanted to highlight: the stresses involved in being a minority of any kind. People tend to immediately categorize all they engage with as either “like” or “other”. They connect with those who are like them, and view the…
Let’s start with the terms themselves. Systemic racism is a deep-rooted issue in the US, and one that many conservatives don’t want to admit even exists. When it comes to our broken healthcare system, racism is one of many ‘isms’ buried within it. Ableism is also a systemic issue, and one that is deeply entrenched…
October through December is Open Enrollment season for the US Health Insurance system. This is the time when people can choose, change, or adjust their healthcare plan. With about 55% of the population covered through private employers, this is when employees have the right to examine their options and select the offered plan that best…
Health insurance is a big scary topic in the US, and one that leads many people to just back away. Coverage tends to be very complicated in this country and feel overwhelming for everyone who could, should, or might get health insurance. For those of us in the disabled community, health insurance tends to be…
I’ve been active during the time I’ve taken off from posting. One of my biggest efforts was a multi-day trip to Washington, DC to join the Poor People’s Campaign in a push for congressional reforms through civil disobedience. We had a simple set of demands for the Senate, which has, of yet, been unfulfilled. Our…