What’s up with this, anyway?
For the past 30 years, I’ve lived with chronic illness: the daily questions, the self doubt, the pain, the fatigue, and the fear. I know, from experience, that it can be hard to keep working, when you’re managing an illness, too.  But I believe that work can be a lifeline - if we know what, where and how to grab it.

This blog has been germinating since I first launched my business, www.cicoach.com
(c for chronic, i for illness, coach because that’s what I do).   I want to share what I”ve learned because — I wish there had been these options along the way for me. It can be a lonely and frustrating journey.

It’s my hope that this blog helps you to clarify your experience, stimulate you to take meaningful action and lets us all grow more competent in normalizing the abnormal … living with chronic illness.

Here’s a little about me:
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was 28 years old, one month after marrying the most wonderful man I could ever have hoped for. Multiple sclerosis sounded scary and so were my symptoms (blindness in one eye and fatigue so extreme I could barely lift myself in bed). But I was lucky — it was a relatively mild case that progressed slowly over the years. From the start, I made career changes and limited my options to adjust to my health needs. Looking back, it’s easy to see why it was difficult to achieve the stability and career track I so desperately wanted. I struggled to stay employed, difficult as it often was, and even if I didn’t know why it mattered to me so much.

By the time I was 42, however, I was severely ill with debilitating ulcerative colitis that made it too difficult to hold a job. I had two beautiful daughters, a wonderful husband and a full life (even if I had lousy health) but I was miserable. And it wasn’t just because I was so sick. I knew that I’d feel less lost and depressed if I could work, my lifeline to being normal and to maintain some sense of independence. A series of surgeries to rid me of my diseased large colon and ulcerative colitis and new therapies for MS that halted the progression of the disease, have left me relatively healthy. I’ve spent the past 10 years creating work that would allow me to earn a living and that I could do regardless of my health.

I like to say that I got a Masters in education 35 years ago and I’ve earned my Doctorate in living and working with chronic illness.