Archive for the 'Health Info' Category
Is the health care reform bill a step toward ensuring that anyone living with chronic illness will receive “adequate” medical treatment? Or is it just more help for the healthy? I don’t have the answer. But I’m delighted that in the increased attention on the burden that chronic illness places on individuals and society when [...]
Chronic illness, complicated as it is, leaves many searching for a simple answer. Lately, a tantalizing headline has gotten much press in the social media ‘disease’ community (yes, I’m on twitter and you can tweet me @WorkWithIllness): “Exercise can Quiet Anxiety that Comes With Illness”. Help me, please. What’s the news here? That people who [...]
A reporter was interviewing me about chronic illness and working. She was very surprised when I said, “The single most important factor that helps a chronically illl person continue to work is to work in a flexible environment.” She asked me what “evidence” I have to support this. (Have you noticed how popular that word [...]
Living with chronic illness isn’t easy, under the best of circumstances. And working can seem like it makes it tougher. But the alternative is usually worse. It was a dear friend’s 60th birthday party. And, once again, my body was in revolt. I was feverish, tired, nauseous – with numb feet and awful balance (multiple [...]
Stress, Chronic Illness and You
Last night, after “unplugging” for two weeks on vacation, I struggled to adapt to a 7 hours time difference as I made dinner. Suddenly, a light bulb went off and I remembered that I had to be on a conference call in 5 minutes. Rushing to finish, I reached for the sugar to add to [...]
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 lucky to count among my professional friends, Elizabeth Genovese, M.D. (internal and occupational medicine). We met several years ago on a committee charged with creating suggestions for improving the Social Security disability evaluation process. For the past year, Elizabeth has been living with a rare and difficult to treat cancer. Her belly is terribly [...]
Last week, a client, “E”, wrote an email telling me how difficult it is to “.. have your life so controlled by insurance as it is for so many like us (living with chronic illness). I’m disappointed it determines so much of my joy. And my son will determine where he will work based on [...]
Diabetes should not be the reason that Sonia Sotomayor does not get approved for the Supreme Court. Sotomayor acknowledges that diabetes has informed the person she has become. But like all of us, there are a multitude factors that create her life story, including growing up poor, losing her father at a young age, being [...]
In this virtual world so many of us live in, I “met” fellow traveler, Bernard Farrell, through the vibrant virtual diabetes community. Recently he mentioned on twitter (@BernardF) that he’d gotten a new job. I didn’t know he was unemployed but saw an opportunity to share his perspective. So, I sent him some questions and [...]
