a woman in turquoise scrubs holds a stethescope bent to form the shape of a heart in front of her.
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Finding the right doctors after being diagnosed with Functional Neurological Disorder

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…

Eggs in an egg carton. All are white except for a single black egg in the center. All eggs have faces drawn on them - with the black egg looking frightened, and the surrounding white eggs looking varying degrees of angry or disapproving and appearing focused on the black egg
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Minority Stress and Chronic Illness

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…

A black female doctor talks to her white female patient
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Systemic racism and ableism in healthcare

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…

Black woman with short, natural hair reads over a document at her desk.
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Health Insurance Plans and the disabled community

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…

turquoise background, with white text: "I did it my way: Guiding your own medical wellness journey: off label LDN for fibromyalgia). The right side of is a picture of a bottle of prescription medication
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I Did It My Way! Directing Your Wellness Journey

I met Katie a year or two ago. As she and I discussed our health experiences, I found myself especially fascinated with how she discovered LDN and how helpful she’d found it. As she shared her experience of negotiating her treatment with her doctor, I thought it would be a great piece of experience to…

Black and white photo cropped close to focus on the smiling face of Sarah Malm. She has shoulder-length light colored hair, is white, and is wearing plastic-framed glasses.
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Grieving While Chronically Ill and “Childless Not By Choice”

I’ve gotten to know Sarah Malm over the past year or so. She and I are running a Spoonie Coworking Space. She’s a fellow spoonie and an artist who creates lovely greeting cards. We were discussing our experiences of being Childless Not By Choice and I suggested she write this post for me. When it…

Tatiana(white woman with honey-brown hair) smiling while holding her rose breasted cockatoo. The picture is cropped at chest-height.

How-tos and Questions About Filing for Disability

I am honored that Alison invited me to write a post about filing for disability from an attorney’s perspective. I hope to answer some of the most common questions claimants ask in regards to filing for disability. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Tatiana Froes. I am a disability attorney practicing disability…

picture of a white man with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. The view is cropped at the shoulders, and he's wearing a gray collared shirt and a dark tie. He has a hint of a smile on his face in this formal picture
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The pain of losing a great doctor

On Tuesday, I had an appointment with a new neurologist. The neurologist I’d been seeing, Dr. Schneider, was on medical leave due to a cancer diagnosis. I’d had a telehealth appointment with Dr. Schneider in June, and he’d been a little pale and skinnier than usual (he was always a pretty slender guy), and during…