The Invisible Revolution: Living With Chronic Pain Chronic pain changes every part of your life, and most people can’t see it. They aren’t ignoring your pain, they just can’t witness it. There’s no cast. No bruise. No clear sign that says, “I’m hurting.” So the world expects you to keep showing up like you always…
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Energy budgeting without the guilt or stress
I woke up with four good hours in me, not four hours to waste, four hours to be me. How to Spend Your Good Hours (Now You Can Count Them) On Tuesday, I woke up with only four hours of good energy in me. Not four hours of sitting on the couch and scrolling, four…
Read moreWhen Pain Shows Up as an Unwanted Teacher
Chronic pain changes you. I know that as a doctor who has treated it, and as a patient who lives with long-term pain. Pain isn’t only a feeling in the body. It shifts your thoughts, your mood, and how you move through the day. It also pushes on your mind in a way few things…
Read moreWas It Worth It?
A few weeks ago, my palliative care physician asked me a simple question that nobody had ever asked me before – “Was all that worth it?” She knew I had been receiving treatment for my cancers for 6 years now – 6 years of chemotherapy; a stem-cell transplant that provided me with 6 months of…
Read moreHow We Experience Challenges
For some reason, I never expected to learn something new after having bone marrow cancer for six years – but I did. Most of the “enormous” challenges I experienced did not last anywhere near as long as I thought they would. We usually don’t expect to hear something like that when we’re in the midst…
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