Christina and Amica’s Chronic Adventure

28 May
Amica is my best friend, a senior retriever-chowchow-shepherd-rottweiler-otherstuff mix whom I’ve been with for eleven years, and in case you missed it, we’re on an epic cross-country journey. On Instagram, I’ve been using #ChristinaandAmicasChronicAdventure to tag it, because that’s what...
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What My Aging Dog Just Taught Me About “No Going Back”

2 May
I’m a writer. I was six or seven years old when I started writing poetry and short stories. My greatest grief with my fibromyalgia is being robbed of time to be a writer because of fatigue and/or brain fog. What...
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How to Help Me Learn to Say “Yes” Again

26 Apr
I recently caught myself doing something terrible … in my brain. My default answer to invitations for social events, whether intimate or large, has become “no.” I have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and...
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4 Ways I Reset My Optimism During a Flare

26 Apr
I’ve finished a marathon. In the last 12 weeks, I spoke in 5 states: at 11 college campuses and 1 Native pueblo. I debuted a brand new program and customized existing programs for unique audiences, like non-native-English speakers and veterans....
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Bloated in Bruges

4 Apr
Every time I’m in a terrible place or moment that I’m desperate to pass, I remind myself of my self-talk driving across Nebraska one time. I had that raging churn and hellfire of diarrhea on a long drive, and Nebraska...
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