Aging, Chronic Illness, Health, Life, Midlife Transitions, Midlife Woman, Self-Care

Life Interrupted Part 3: A New Normal

My breaking point came at a family friend’s viewing. I vividly remember standing in front of his casket, looking down at this 82-year old man who had passed away, and wishing with all my heart it was me in there instead of him.

Aging, Chronic Illness, Health, Life, Midlife Woman, Self-Care, Uncategorized

Life Interrupted Part 2: Down the Rabbit Hole

By late fall 2005, my physical symptoms began to dramatically affect my day-to-day life. I couldn’t continue to tell myself it was just stress or that I was “run down.” I began my quest in earnest to discover what was happening inside my body. It’s also when I discovered that even doctors don’t have all the answers.

Career, Chronic Illness, Health, Life, Midlife Transitions, Midlife Woman, Relationships, Self-Care

In Sickness and in Health: Losing Friends to Chronic Illness

It took me several years to truly understand that what happened with my friends was not malicious or intentional; it was the unfortunate by-product of change. It was the natural shift that occurs when people are no longer moving in the same direction. Like a road that reaches a fork, I went left while they went right. 

Chronic Illness, Divorce, Gratitude, Health, Life, Midlife Transitions, Midlife Woman, Relationships, Self-Care, Uncategorized

Starting Over – Again

The wheel on the hospital gurney made a continuous squeaking sound as they wheeled me down the hall to the operating room. It was one of those incessant noises that would normally drive me crazy, but for some reason that morning I found it comforting.