I heard a story yesterday about resilience. Apparently there was a man born without hands or legs. We are talking lifelong disability here. One day he was out in the snow, and when he came in, he said, “Brrr it’s cold! I’m so cold I can’t feel my hands.” But seriously folks. . . As […]
Surviving Chronic Illness
Imprisoned
There are times in my wonderful, creative, blessed life when I feel imprisoned. I know I am a free white person and I understand the social and political privileges that come with that. But. I am living with chronic illness. And there are days when I feel caged in on all sides. Chronic illness is […]
Lupus Is Easy
I’m pretty annoyed as I write this. Actually, I’m livid. It is not every day someone makes a comment that gets me this riled up. Except for a doctor who minimises my experience of chronic illness. I have been avoiding finding a new GP. But last week it was necessary. My chronic illness flared up […]
Childless-By-Forced-Choice
I was married for two years when I was diagnosed with lupus. I was thirty-one at the time. The lupus diagnosis came after eight years of mysterious symptoms and misdiagnoses. (In that respect, the diagnosis was a blessing.) It was not a shock. It finally gave me clarity on all the bizarre, seemingly coincidental medical […]
Forced Choice
I had been married for two years when I was diagnosed with lupus. I was thirty-one years old at the time. My husband and I had decided to enjoy our time together before making any hurried decisions about family. Our deadline was to make a decision by the time I turned thirty-five. We were not […]
By Design
A preacher once said to me, “If you are planted in the right environment, you will flourish.” He was speaking metaphorically, of course, comparing our lives with those of trees. The preacher suggested that different types of trees require different environments, different soils, different exposure to light and so on, in order to grow into […]
When God Heals
Turn back the clock to 6 years ago. I came down with a vocal problem that wouldn’t go away. For a singer, a vocal issue can be quite alarming. It conjures up images of botched surgery and a voice that is potentially ruined for life. Most of us have heard of singing celebrities who are […]
It’s Not Just You
When I first asked for volunteers with stories of childlessness, I had no idea that so many people would respond. I also had no idea how many of those people would suffer from medical conditions. It seems that there is a high correlation between illness and childlessness. This was encouraging for me, given that I […]
Single and Chronically Ill
When I first published Surviving Singledom, a single lady came up to me and told me about her chronic illness. She shared about how much harder it was to cope with chronic conditions as a single person, largely because there was no-one with whom to share the burden of caring. This lady described the things […]
The Great Unknown
I was talking with a friend recently about vulnerability. We were discussing pain and suffering and the unique challenges faces by chronically ill Christians. One thing we chatted about was the problem of physical healing. When people ask God for healing and then they are healed, it is a beautiful thing, an occasion worthy of […]