Reasons why I write
Every once in a while, I freak out. Why in the world am I putting all this personal stuff about my life online? I woke up this morning feeling like I needed to update my...
Tag: spoonie
An Update on Life with One Ovary
One of the topics readers most frequently contact me about is the time I had to have emergency surgery to remove my right ovary. In case you aren’t familiar with the story, I had had...
Powerful female hormones, injuries, and pain
Something I’ve really come to notice during my time with SI joint issues is the effect of my hormonal cycle on my ligaments. I saw a female pain specialist once who put it very plainly: I have...
Christopher deCharms: A look inside the brain in real time
I’ve been writing about some heavy stuff recently, so I thought it would be a good time to share something that makes me feel really hopeful: Christopher deCharms is a neuroscientist and entrepreneur who, along...
Central Sensitivity Syndromes
A really important concept for anyone struggling with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, or other chronic health conditions is the idea of “central sensitivity syndromes” (CSS for short). The term refers to any kind of condition that...
The piece that didn’t fit
When I was young, all I wanted was to fit in, to be perfect. To do what adults expected of me. I never had a single cavity, I never missed the school bus. I...
Fighting a health issue without judgement, for the first time
They say one of the worst things a blogger can do is to begin all your posts with an explanation of why it’s been so long since your last post. Normally I’m able to stop myself from...
The things I don’t have easy answers for
My friend C. once wrote that vulnerability does not always have to mean a state of weakness: In order to function in my everyday life, I have to be vulnerable and explain why my body “doesn’t show...
How Clifford Woolf discovered central sensitization (and why you shouldn’t blame yourself for chronic pain)
You’ve probably noticed that my blog is all about central sensitization— the process through which the central nervous system can change over time and become more sensitive to pain. Personally, I find learning about central sensitization...
A successful experiment with acute stress
In my last post I outlined some ideas from Neil Pearson on how to stress our bodies in positive ways, in the hopes of re-shaping the way we process pain. I continued my experiment at...