Care giving relationships (particularly unpaid) when caring for disabled people can be difficult to manage for both people in the relationship. For the disabled care receiver it requires a trust and a vulnerability to allow yourself to receive care, and for the care giver it can feel as if you have too much responsibility. Having… More Care giving relationships can be tricky
After years of knowing that a wheelchair would be helpful but being too scared to use one, exactly one year ago I bought my first manual wheelchair. So, on my wheelchair anniversary this year, I want to challenge one of the most common things that people are told when they start thinking about mobility aids,… More Using a mobility aid is not giving up
TW: suicide, death, euthanasia Recently I found out that in the Netherlands (and actually some other countries) you can get euthanasia if you have ME. My illness. Since finding this out it has been something I have thought about a lot. There is something kind of strange about finding out that living with my illness… More Euthanasia, suicide and ME/CFS
Learning a new language is quite a daunting prospect for anybody. Add in a chronic illness, with fun symptoms like brain fog, energy deficiency problems and memory recall issues, and it can seem very overwhelming. I am currently spending a lot of my time learning Dutch, in order to pass exams at the end of… More Language learning with a chronic illness
Video version at the bottom of the page – coming soon! Last night I was too sick to get out of bed. I had managed to put some pasta on to boil but had then gone straight back to bed. My housemate, rescuing the pasta from being overcooked, came into my room and offered to… More Asking for help is hard: chronic illness edition
I started using a wheelchair around about a year ago. Since then, I haven’t really been able to use it all that much, other than for trips to the supermarket and walks in the nearby area. But recently, thanks to living in the EU and being fully vaccinated, I was able to take myself and… More My first time travelling with a wheelchair
Chronic Epstein Barr Virus, Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. What do all of these have in common? In fact, they are all names for the same illness. But why does one illness have so many different names? And why does the name of the illness matter? Well, like almost every other… More ME/CFS; a disease with many names
A couple of nights ago, just before I was about to go to bed, I started getting a creeping uneasy feeling, that turned into a fully-fledged paranoia that I was going to get thrombosis, have a blood clot, and then a stroke. It was something that I then spent the next couple of hours obssessing… More Health anxiety – I’m terrified of getting sick
I don’t really believe in laziness. At least, not when the term is used around me, or when I use it myself. It’s not really even used to mean laziness, but rather a plethora of other, very different things, often in the form of unseen barriers. I know that when I call myself lazy, usually… More But are you REALLY lazy?
It’s my birthday on Thursday. I am turning 26. I am a really big fan of birthdays, and love making other people’s birthdays special, but when it comes to mine, I have mixed feelings. Chronically ill birthday’s are a little different. Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to having cake, and having something to… More Chronically ill birthday reflections