My husband and I are moving from the house in which our girls, now ages 19 and 22 years, were born and raised.  Recently a friend videotaped their memories of living here.   I was struck that neither mentioned anything  about their mother when she was unable to lift herself from bed, pick them up […]

A client, I’ll call her Jane, was describing her feelings of isolation ever since she developed chronic fatigue syndrome (almost 3 years ago). She finds that as time goes on, she doesn’t want to talk about the illness or how she feels to anyone. Whether it’s a casual acquaintance a friend or family, […]

Once in a while I have occasion to tell someone new about my experience living and working with symptoms associated with Crohn’s Disease. These days, it comes up when telling someone about this blog. One thing I love about having these conversations is the safety it creates for others to talk about something in their […]

I’ve lived with chronic illness for 28 years and I still stumble (at least in my head) after I’ve disclosed this to someone. For most of these years, the subject usually came up early in a conversation, often in the context of what I couldn’t do. But, I’ve been fortunate. […]

Holiday parties with the inevitable: “How are you? What’s new?”
Do I say, “Well lately I’ve been plagued with nocturnal enuresis, you know,  that night bed-wetting associated with bladder dysfunction from MS.”?  I don’t think so.
What can you say when your life isn’t a one liner?  And even if you could fit it […]