Archive for August, 2009
Lessons from Teddy
In Ted Kennedy Jr.’s eulogy for his father, he described his dad’s response as he struggled to climb an icy sledding hill. He was crying that he would never be able to climb that hill with his new artificial leg. His father told him, “I know you’ll do it. There’s nothing you can’t do. We’re [...]
The first sign that I didn’t have a healthy body came in my mid 20′s. I developed numbness in my fingers. My boyfriend, Jake, a medical student, was there when I went for a myelogram, a very uncomfortable test. A few months later, when I developed the first of hundreds of urinary infections, he picked [...]
Sanya Richards was in a Behcet’s “flare” — covered in lesions and experiencing fatigue — when she won the Women’s 400m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009! She did what with what? Richards thinks that running races while living with this disease is “almost more of a mental hurdle [...]
I’m delighted. Last week, beloved Boston Red Sox commentator, Jerry (“Remdog”) Remy spoke “on air” about living with chronic illness. Explaining to Boston fans that lung cancer (treated last fall) was tough, he said it’s depression that’s keeping him from working since April. What followed was a frank a description about what it’s like to [...]
Resumes look different than when my parents were job hunting – – or for that matter, when I was first in the game. For most of the 20th century, a person took a job expecting to die in that job. But sometime in the early 1990′s, job security and employee loyalty were pushed aside in [...]
FYI – If you tried to “comment” recently and couldn’t, that’s fixed now! Two chronic issues for people with chronic illness who are job interviewing are: disclosure and employment gaps. In this post, I’ll discuss disclosure. I’ll cover employment gaps next time. Disclosure centers on 3 big questions: Should I say it? What should [...]
What does “help” mean for you?
Does living with chronic illness leave you feeling like no one understands? Feeling alone and misunderstood is especially painful when it’s your spouse or any member of your family who just doesn’t seem to “get” it. Do you find yourself muttering, “Why do I have to explain the same things over and over again?” Or, [...]
I think I can, I think I can.
“If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right, too.” Henry Ford. Career and chronic illness. Not exactly 2 things that go together, like peanut butter and jelly? In fact, it’s my experience that most people who learn that they’re living with a chronic illness figure that career can no [...]
