Tag: chronic illness

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a feather flock together. And although we like to call ourselves medical “zebras”, for the purposes of this discussion I’m calling us birds to honor the age-old adage. Because we definitely flock and hang together whether we realize it or not, diagnosed or not from what I can see. I keep finding increasing

Introduction to MCAD June 2015

As the current coordinator for the PNW Chapter of The Mastocytosis Society covering the greater Pacific Northwestern region of the US plus a few neighboring Canadians, I’ve been eager to help educate both patients and doctors as much as possible to this collection of diseases involving mast cell activation that goes so rarely diagnosed. Alas

When Else to Suspect Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Author’s note March 16, 2017: Since the brand new updated criteria and nosology for all forms of the now plural Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (13 of them as of 2017) and the brand new category of Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders JUST came out, please bear with me as I get my site updated to reflect this. Accordingly, please take

Our Stories of Strength coming out May 2015

I’m thrilled to share that my short “story of strength” was included in the first edition anthology of Our Stories of Strength: Living With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that came out on Kindle May 8th, 2015 for EDS Awareness Month! And as of June 1, it is now also in Print on Amazon too! It is co-edited

MCAD linked to Autism Spectrum April 2015

Editor’s note April 2024: I’m behind on updating all my pages to reflect the change in terminology in the mast cell disease world. Mast Cell Diseases, or just MCD (no “A”) is now the official umbrella term for all forms of mast cell diseases, including Mastocytosis (all the forms), HaTS, and MCAS among other less

Fatigue and EDS

Those who have any form of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) like me (with hEDS) or the new diagnosis of Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (since March 2017) can tell you there is definitely some fatigue involved from the strain on weak muscles, torn tendons and ligaments and all forms of our connective tissue. Those of us with the very

Flares happen

This post is brought to you by Peanut, my faithful therapy rattie and napping partner as I find myself going splat a lot more with my 2nd worst flare since my initial 2012 onset “storm” or “cascade” that first got me diagnosed with Hypermobile type Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. I’m strongly suspecting a hormonal cause to this

January is Thyroid Awareness Month

January is Thyroid Awareness month, and I bring this to your attention at this time because a majority of the patietns I’ve met in person with any form of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (or Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders since 2017) seems to also show signs of SOME form of thyroid imbalance. But quite frequently hypothyroidism or under-active

2014 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for my blog. Although I’m no where near as popular and well read (nor prolific) as some of my fellow spoonie bloggers yet (I’m struggling to stay fed and watered still), I’m quite happy with my initial foray this past year, reaching 47 countries and 7100