After some thought, I decided that the most appropriate way to end FND Awareness month was to talk about my early experience with FND – from when my symptoms started to when I actually recieved my FND diagnosis. This is a journey that took a bit over 3 years, so that you have a sense…
It’s that time again, I’m writing in response to A Chronic Voice’s monthly linkup. March prompts: weighing, targeting, being, doing, staying This month, I was inspired by the struggles my partner Al and I have been having the past few months with three different programs designed to help our most needy populations: Medicaid, LiHEAP(Low-income Heat and…
Doctors can and often do make the wrong diagnosis. There are also people, especially those who spend a long period of time without a diagnosis, who start to see a diagnosis as a holy grail – that one true thing that will make their lives ok again. What a diagnosis is Diagnoses are labels. They…
If you are not experiencing an immediately life-threatening emergency, please double-check with your doctor if at all possible to see if there is a reasonable alternative to going to the ER. Not only are ER visits substantially more expensive than regular doctor or hospital visits, but they also are spaces where you have almost no…
I want to specifically talk about brain injuries in relation to emergency rooms because I have had too many experiences with them. I know how challenging it can be to have a TBI recognized and how very important this is, especially in the case of the brain injury being caused by an accident that eventually…
My phone rang. ‘Hey, honey?’ my partner Al said “I need you to call mom and dad about this, but I want you to make sure they don’t freak out” “Freak out about what?” I asked, instantly concerned. “Well, they called an ambulance for me. I slipped and I think I might have dislocated my…
There are a lot of potential issues with going to a hospital ER, but one that many people don’t want to recognize is bias.
One of the many scary things about being disabled is the crushing debt that can occur and add stress to your life. Most disabled people end up relatively poor, sometimes below the poverty level, due to the combination of expenses and lack of income. We often find ourselves struggling to do more with less and…
This post takes you through when I used Medicare.gov to select my Medicare part D(medication) plan for 2020. I decided that it might be useful for any of you who also need to make this selection to walk you through the website and the decision-making process I went through in selecting which plan made the…
Al and I are in the process now of getting our Low-Income Heat and Energy Assistance Plan(LIHEAP) renewed. Since we are getting it done right now, I figured it was a good time to talk about this program. What is LIHEAP? LIHEAP exists in some form in every state but is usually managed on the…