This disease, like time and life, dips and dances but tends to go in one direction. As long as it doesn’t outrun my ability to… Read More »What does it take to seize a difficult life in both hands?
I’m an old ER nurse so please, trust me when I say that nobody gets a guarantee with this life. Nobody really knows what’s next,… Read More »Make room for joy, especially when it isn’t easy
Chronic pain patients are often called Difficult Patients, when the casual cruelty and reflexive contempt of medicine and the ignorance of other people grates too… Read More »Fragile Egg Syndrome
A friend I’ll call A died of suicide last night. It’s easy to say of people that they are rare and radiant souls once they’re… Read More »Losing Our Angels to Suicide
In CRPS and dysautonomia, several parts of the brain get under- or over-enthusiastic (or both, unpredictably.) It’s easy to oversimplify, but even more confusing; each… Read More »Handling anxiety and its obnoxious little friends
I have loads of advice for surgery and invasive procedures, so I might as well park it in one place. I used to be an… Read More »My preparation and self-care for surgeries and injuries
I was holding off on blogging consistently until my brain was more consistently reliable — until I had enough improvement in my mental faculties. Reason… Read More »Living anyway
There are no shortcuts with grief. There’s no trick to it. It just is. It’s just one part of life, different from joy or ecstasy… Read More »Uncle Peter passes
I say that a lot. The first thing our bodies do when we get a burst of pain or other shock is, clench. Hard to… Read More »First, keep breathing
Ted Mancuso is famous for his enthusiastic Renaissance mind and the kinds of explanations it leads to. If that kind of thing doesn’t drive you… Read More »Ted’s Talks #2: “Relaxed” in Chinese