Chronic Illness
My Immune Deficient Life
My medical story is long, convoluted and complicated. I have multiple disorders linked to both genetic and immune dysregulation along with secondary disorders and complications. I am in the high risk category of immune dysregulation, in that I have had cancer, I have at least two autoimmune diseases and I have an immunodeficiency. What this […]
My Lipedema Life
The vast majority of people are unaware of fat disorders, thinking that anyone who looks obese, or has large limbs is from caloric intake alone. But fat disorders indeed exist and I have inherited a condition called Familial Lipedema, a genetic fat disorder, from my mom. My great-grandmom had it, my mom, me, and my […]
My Gumby Life
Everyone has at least one family member “famous” for a physical ailment. Sometimes that is the only thing known about them to younger generations. At family gatherings I frequently heard about “Grandma with the leg swelling” or “Great Aunt Bertie who weighed 600 pounds” or “everyone has bad arthritis after age 50” etc. Well, at […]
My Humpty Dumpty Life
I have discovered over the past three years that I have at least five serious, rare, familial health problems that have morphed into twenty conditions. Yes, I hit the jackpot and inherited all of the mysterious and unnamed familial symptoms linked with one or a few family members over the past five generations. Now that […]
“Sixty shots of lidocaine on the wall”
Needle sharp shafts… pierce my skin… and leave their mark… with tiny burning flames…. I tense again and again…. my face a stoic mask…. I am too terrified to speak… afraid that what little bravery I hold… will spill out of these bloody marks…. Snakelike sheaths march up my veins… I taste the burning cautery… […]
RePrEsSeD ExPrEsSiOnS 