A snail makes its way across a red running track.
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Pacing: an essential tool for self-care and healing

ByAlison Hayes

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…

Alison(white woman with medium-length brown hair with white highlights) looks directly into the camera with a slightly sad and frustrated look on her face. She has a pillow behind her head and an offwhite wall behind her. She is wearing a white shirt with a peasant top, with blue stitching visible on it.
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So I got Covid-19 – Experiencing the aftereffects

ByAlison Hayes

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…

A white woman with short gray hair and wearing dark-rimmed glasses tilts her head to the right, leaning it against her right hand and smiles into the camera. She's in a close-cropped photo that shows her to chest height and she's wearing a grey-blue collared shirt with paisley-shaped collections of turqoise blue tiny flowers dotting it. The photo feels friendly and inviting, like she's just asked you a question and is attentively awaiting your answer.
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Using hypnotherapy to treat FND: transforming your mind

ByMorag Stevenson

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…

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

ByAlison Hayes

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…

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

ByAlison Hayes

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…

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”

BySarah Malm

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…

Nicole Neer(white woman with short dirty-blond hair) stands, smiling, with her hands in her pockets. She is wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt and smiling
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Moving Through Medical Trauma

ByNicole Neer

Nicole interviewed me for her Spooniepreneur podcast a couple of years ago, and we’ve clicked. When she suggested collaborating by cross-posting on one another’s blogs, I jumped at the opportunity. We both wrote about medical trauma from our own personal experiences. My post on her blog came out a few days ago, and Nicole and…

The picture is taken looking down at my arm and hand. Nigel is on the couch beside me, his paws touching the blanket I'm under. His tail is firmly wrapped around my wrist.
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Planning in recovery time after losing last summer to Covid-19

ByAlison Hayes

2020 was a rough year, and I’m recognizing the different pressures I’ve had, many of which were caused or magnified by Covid-19. I’m recognizing that while I’ve managed to do a fair bit this past year, I’m now a bit fatigued and low on energy for self-care as well as resistant to following the routines…

A doctor smiles at the camera while holding a clipboard. She appears to be in a waiting room, with patients behind her
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Managing doctor care during this lull in Covid-19

ByAlison Hayes

I don’t know about where you live, but here in New Jersey, we’re experiencing a decrease in Covid-19 spread. With everybody (over 16) willing to get vaccinated able to get shots, the numbers are going down a bit and it’s becoming time to think about catching back up with Al and my medical care. I’m…

a manicured back yard stands on the bank of a tidal creek. Clumps of dead fish lie at the waterline
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This isn’t normal: why we often ignore early symptoms of our condition(s)

ByAlison Hayes

In late March, I went out for a walk on the nature trail by my house. As I crossed one of the several bridges along the route, I noticed something unusual—a flash of silver as a fish (specifically, a bunker) surfaced, gasping, and then rolled back over into the water. This is not normal fish…