Flying with a disability
You absolutely can fly while managing your condition! While there aren’t generally travel discounts (airlines are private companies), there are rules to help you travel safely, referred to as the Air Carrier Access Act. Your carrier’s services should provide you with supports for your trip, but it is your responsibility to let them know that…
Traveling with a disability: Save yourself spoons and money!
Traveling in any way can be a relatively large expense, and for those of us with disabilities, it can also take up a disproportionate amount of energy. There are some things you can do now to help you have an easier time when you travel later, whether you’re traveling across town or across the country….
Should I apply for disability?
It can be a hard decision to make. There are actually two different programs that are often referred to as disability, and while you don’t need to choose which to apply for (they share the same application and are both run by the Social Security Administration), it is important to understand what they are and…
Managing doctor care during this lull in Covid-19
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…
This isn’t normal: why we often ignore early symptoms of our condition(s)
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…
Functional Neurological Disorder treatment programs are worth the effort!
I participated in the MoRe—Motor Reprogramming—program in Louisville, Kentucky, in 2016. It was the single most helpful treatment I have ever had, and may ever have, for my Functional Neurological Disorder(FND). In this post, I want to go over why this is a treatment option, how it works, and how you can find a similar…
The Seven Steps of Accepting Your Diagnosis
As I have mentioned in previous posts, accepting your diagnosis isn’t as easy as it may first sound. For most people, there’s a fair amount of time between when symptoms first occur and when they know what is actually happening inside their bodies. There also is definitely a sense of loss involved in really recognizing…
Ableism in society: everybody wants you to be okay
One of those challenges that many of us need to deal with is that on top of the physical and emotional trauma involved in our illnesses or injuries, we also often need to communicate what is happening to our loved ones and other significant people in our lives. This can be challenging, as we are…
Accepting my Functional Neurological Disorder diagnosis
April is FND Awareness Month, and April 13 is FND Awareness Day. I’m going all in on that, and I’ll be focusing this post and month on the process of accepting your diagnosis—and illustrating it with my FND experiences (and what I’ve picked up from fellow FNDers inside of discussion groups). I’m also using A…