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Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt

When I’m having a really bad day and the pain won’t let up, I appreciate those doors that open. Perhaps I’ll hear from a reader, whose wisdom inspires me to think beyond my own suffering. Or, I’ll spend time in prayer and new insight will gently rest on my heart. Or, maybe the door opening…

I realize not all those who ready my blog will observe Advent, the weeks leading up to Christmas. But if you celebration Christmas, then even without Advent, those weeks between Thanksgiving and December 25 can be full of lots of extra ctivity. And with that activity can come some pitfalls that can seriously derail the…

I have a suggestion for shopping this year. It might help shave time off of the decision-making that can be confounding at times, and frustrating at others. That murky, “Will he/she like this?” Years ago, several people told me that you should always buy the gift that you yourself would like to receive. I suppose…

Happy Thanksgiving? It’s been a year of amazing blessings, but also a lot of extra pain and uncertainty, not to mention the ups and downs of having to take a new medication that has some unpleasant side effects. More than one person I know has died this year. Others are slowing down due to age…

If you live with a chronic illness, or if you have constant pain that interferes with movement or other daily activities, you might be dreading the upcoming gift-giving season. Not because you don’t have much money to spend on loved ones (although you might not) and not because you don’t like navigating the malls or…

One of the hardest parts about a diagnosis of a serious, life-altering chronic illness is just that: it will alter your life. But often we focus on the word “alter” (or harsher pronouncements such as “mess up” or “destroy”) and forget that the word “life” abides. Yes, although we might have an illness that requires…

Bringing comfort to our lives with a chronic illness can be very difficult, especially if the illness comes with physical and emotional pain. We might not have the energy for stress-busting activities we enjoyed before our diagnosis. We might not have any money for recreational activities after we’ve paid for our medical care, medications, and…

Allowing people into our life with the diagnosis of a serious chronic illness is an important step to building the support system that will sustain us and provide us with a way to “give back” to the goodness from which we benefit. This can be very hard, especially if we experience loss among the social circle…

As you begin to find answers to your questions after a diagnosis with a chronic illness, you and your doctor will be working on fine-tuning your condition and setting up an approach for treatment and follow-up. I discovered quickly that my life changed drastically – from social and professional appointments I went into days when…

Life with chronic illness tends to go through stages, and probably the most difficult one is when you first leave the doctor’s office with a diagnosis. Perhaps, at first, you feel a bit of relief. Finally, you might exclaim, there’s a definite name for what I have! But then, as the news sinks in, you might…
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