Recommendation: If you enjoyed Bridgerton, try "Perfect Match" on netflix; a funny and tear-jerking period Chinese drama with a similar premise; mother who runs a tea shop with many daughters needs to marry them off!
Missed you so much, Amy! So glad you’ve returned and so proud of you for all your recent accomplishments. Yayaya!!! I’m happy to be here for whatever cadence you can manage. Ripley is so close to allowing pets from you! I can’t see it. 😍
😂😂 vibrating midget bird brings me back to the early days of long COVID, when I yelled out to Baldy in frustration, “the thing that turns the eggs!” Couldn’t come up with the word for spatula 🤦🏼♀️
Will keep you posted on Ripley - I think you might be right! I got a little closer yesterday 🤞🏻😬
Welcome back Amy! I’m so happy to hear about all the latest developments. I recently recommended The Tonic to a friend who thinks she has Long Covid. I look forward to your future updates!
Amy, I am so happy you are back. I was in a complete crash when you sent your last post and I so badly wanted to let you know how much I valued you and The Tonic, but didn’t have it in me. Actually……it has caused me stress that I didn’t follow through with a note and now I can let that go :-). The crash happened after a great trip to NYC and the east coast. I thought LC was behind me and hit the ground running when I returned home…….lesson learned and still learning that this is something that I am still dealing with and need to plan rest and downtime after something big…..especially with a time zone change. Every crash leads to a lesson on how to prevent the next crash. I noticed that I physically tensed when I read about your relapse, but am happy it was short lived. It’s amazing how easy it is to go back to old patterns when you are in the thick of things. Congratulations on your education and career.
Thank you Meghan! It means a lot to me to hear that you value what I’m doing here. Please know that the last thing I would want is for you to try to expend energy getting in touch with me when you’re in a crash, and then to feel stress about not being able to! It’s a good reminder to me to assume there could be folks out there appreciating The Tonic who just can’t reach out at the moment.
You are now maybe the fourth or fifth spoonie I’ve heard from who confirmed that they had a good bit of recovery going and then they crashed or had an adjustment period from travel. It takes so much out of us, all the planning/packing/stress of getting places on time/anxiety about the travel itself/physical energy expenditure of getting from place to place. We forget how much effort that is!
Welcome back Amy! It is eerie how in sync we are. I just returned from a 12 day cruise from Venice to Athens. I was able to do so much and thought my expansion would miraculously continue once I got home after a day or two of jet lag recovery. It as reassuring to read you had a similar experience.
Congratulations on your recovery & education for your career! You are an inspiration to us all. I’m so grateful you introduced me to CFS Recovery. It has helped me improve immensely and I’m able to pass along the life lessons onto my family. Hopefully it breaks the cycle:). Cheers!
Molly! So great to hear from you! And how amazing about your cruise and what you could do 🤗. The dopamine hits to your brain must have been tremendous!
It is humbling, isn’t it - to realize we still need to expect our nervous systems to need extra time to recalibrate after a big expansion. These are still tremendous wins we’ve just racked up though. I’m so happy to hear CFS Recovery has been a big help to you!
My coach reminded me to that we get an adrenaline rush on vacation that we don’t get at home. I’m also happy to report that ai didn’t need a wheelchair in the airports. It was very empowering to be able to do all the walking.
“Imperfect Women” on Apple is really good. Very soap-y and one of those slow reveals of who the murderer is kind of shows. I love that you watch Paradise too! Unbelievably good show. If you’re looking for a lighter, happier show, “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS is an absolute delight. “Your Friends and Neighbors” on Apple is really good too, though a little on the darker side. I didn’t know Dan Levy had a new show either so definitely going to have to check that out.
The Heathrow Airport gate thing totally threw me the 1st time I flew through there. It was for a connection too which was even more stressful. On my 2nd trip, I looked into their disability boarding services which made everything way easier (it has its own separate waiting room too). Vienna and Dublin airport do the same thing so it must be a European thing to not let you wait at the gate until a certain amount of time before the flight leaves (adding to the already stressful experience of travelling).
Glad you had a good trip and were able to navigate your symptoms coming back. Glad you’re hiatus was temporary too. Always happy to have you here.
Happy to read that you are back! I’ve missed your articles, memes, and cat pictures 🫶🏼
Random cat update: I have been feeding a bunch of stray cats in my neighborhood. I think there’s about 6 at this point, I’m losing count 😂 but one that has gotten really friendly and I’m trying to convince it to make its way indoors. If I remember correctly (I might be wrong) I think that’s how you got your most recent cat. Anyways, glad you’re back and excited to read more Tonic!
And oooh - the cat distribution system™️ strikes again! It’s wild - with all our cat stories, none of our indoor cats has become so from being taken in as a stray. Ripley is our biggest attempt and hope so far 🤞🏻. How close are you with the one? Please keep me posted!
Of course, I was happy to see your name pop up on my timeline! Is Ripley an outdoor kitty?
Also, I got the cat to walk into my house the other day! Only for a minute but definitely progress. I might have to just use the cat trap eventually but I hate doing that 🫣 it’s at an age where I really want to get it healthcare and spayed/neutered though so I’m starting to get impatient hahaha.
Woo, I’ve missed you! And I can feel you’re fully revamped, refreshed energy. Added insight, deeper clarity. Know where you’re going wisdom and what you’re doing girl…..and the humour 😍 loving it all💫
I have 3 months to say so buckle up🤣
I’d’ve loved to drive down and meet you on your trip here to England! But I appreciate times will have been full on with study. What a gorgeous building - and those grounds…💚
Train delays, airport tactics, no concern for what we’re inhaling…ahhh, welcome to England
I hope the beauty of our countryside, your excellent planning skills and all round experience here made up for it.
Interesting re the creatine. Supplements have never been my thing (none of what I’ve done is perfect). Though I’ve dabbled on occasions and creatine is the one I will benefit from most right now (brain health) and I’m not yet consistent with it. #trying😉
“if you are far along in recovery and lay down to rest and don’t feel better afterwards, rest wasn’t what you needed.”
Hearing this.
I got so far in my recovery and what I needed changed.
Where once upon a time I needed rest the most. Connection became my need. Being accepted by those I was choosing to connect with.
Which meant going for meals a couple of times. Not having capacity to get changed (or brush my hair or clean my shoes) and having to leave the table to puke (Multiple times).
On the outside, it might have looked like I shouldn’t be out in public. But my need was for community and for space to be made for me.
Thankfully, these are the people I am now united with. I didn’t get “told off”. We all noticed my boots were muddy. Unconditional love, acceptance and support surrounded us.
So great to hear all this from you! First up, that estate is up in Skipton (in York). Was I anywhere near you? Would have loved to have met in person, though you’re right - they had us on a pretty tight schedule.
I’m trying to decide if I’m comforted by knowing these were all normal British “things” people accept, or not 🙃😂
Creatine…I swear I can taste and “feel” on my tongue the supposedly tasteless powder. This is what keeps me from using it regularly. Also, it may have caused an uptick in headaches for me, though my doc thinks that might have been the estrogen patch dose I’m on. Who knows!
You were in North Yorkshire, I live in East Yorkshire !
I would’ve been happy to drive for a quick cuppa and a hug🤗
We don’t really accept it here, we complain about it. And we secretly get off on the fact it gives us something to complain about. Because it’s become somewhat of addiction for us here (complaining)😆
I was shocked during all the train delays to not hear audible moaning on the platforms. Everyone put their heads down and just headed to the new platform. NYers love to groan in public! 🤣
Welcome back sissy! Great edition of The Tonic. So happy you’re back at it and I for one love the links! No one out there is quite as witty and eloquent (although I may be a teeny-bit biased!). Can’t wait to see you again in-person and I will definitely give those book recommendations a try. 😘
Hi Amy, I’m doing much better after a long 4 months. I hadn’t had a true crash in 1.5 years and it is so awful, beyond words. I had amazing luck a year ago after getting some stellate ganglion blocks over a 7 month period, life changing! I started to crash in December and the blocks didn’t take. I now know that I need to be stable with baseline fatigue before getting a block. I started guancifine 1mg with NAC 600mg 6 weeks ago and it started kicking in at 2.5 weeks and I’ve been continuously improving. I asked ChatGPT if there was a medication that worked like a SGB and guancifine popped up. My block Dr wrote the prescription and said the research he saw also included 600mg of NAC. I am feeling very fortunate that I have found things that can help me.
This feels like such a familiar story to me, Meghan - and I am really glad to hear that guanfacine and NAC are helping. The familiar part to me is that in 2021, I was taking a cocktail of meds (maraviroc, ivermectin, and a statin), recommended by Dr. Bruce Patterson and his team at the Chronic COVID Treatment Center (have you heard of them? Used to be called IncellDx). I got markedly better and was able to work f/t and even go hiking again, all within 3-4 months. It was an incredible feeling, albeit one that all came crashing down in the fifth month when I had a super stressful workweek followed by a weekend hiking trip that all resulted in a spectacular crash. One that lasted over two years. All of those meds stopped working. And nothing after that worked either (including, among so many others, guanfacine and NAC). I (eventually) came to the realization that the meds had provided relief but did not address the underlying issue of nervous system dysregulation. I had to make some significant changes in my life to become regulated again and that took me the last two or so years to address, as you’ve likely seen in my posts. Even today, I have days or weeks where I can better sense that I am feeling “off” and I pull back on activity without hyper focusing on worry or panic about what any of it means.
I think if you can use the meds as symptom relief while simultaneously working on making friends with your nervous system, the positive changes will have more of a chance of sticking around. I am rooting for you! Stay in touch about it if you’d like.
Hey! So glad to see you’re back. Your plan of writing when the time is right, rather than when it is the scheduled time, is pretty much what I have been doing, and it works for me.
I have only been to Europe once, for a conference. The airport thing is interesting—I flew directly to Frankfurt (my conference was in Innsbruck). I discovered the existence of a Crip lounge of sorts on my way home. Sounds like it’s a thing at airports in Europe.
Frequently cancelled trains would freak me out—although I have been building in an extra day on each end of a trip for quite a while, especially if I have to get up early.
I am impressed that you’re doing so much career wise, and I just encourage you to not go 100 miles an hour until you know that the engine can take it.
Why don’t they have crip lounges in airports here?! Ugh.
I was just telling my husband how tired I am these days. Working even part-time is taking a lot of energy, and I’m still trying to have a social life and run errands during all the free time. I’m going to have to dial something back. Thanks for the encouragement 🩶
It’s difficult, especially if you’re trying to make a specific amount of money. When I retired (it will be four years in October! I feel like I went through the first couple of years in a haze) I could have kept working, a least part-time, but it wasn’t an option.
Whether it is because of a new disability/chronic illness, or aging (in my case, aging with a disability that is changing), it is really hard to know how much energy I have, and what I want “spend” it on.
Did I ever tell you that I started a MFT program once, I guess about 20 years ago. I would work all day, and then take the commuter train down to a university where I would take an an evening class.
When I started, I gave myself permission to quit if I wanted to quit, for whatever reason. As it fell out, I loved the practical “how to talk to clients” classes, and detested the academic/theory classes. Apparently, the program had an “object relations” focus, which I thought was horseshit, if your goal was to help people.
Anyway, I quit after three semesters—4.0 GPA! Now, I wonder how I had the energy. LOL
Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t all about me, however. I hope that you reach a point where you can pick how you want to spend your spoons all the time. I can pick most of the time now, except for the seemingly endless doctors’ appointments of a 68 year old. None of those appointments are related to my ichthyosis! Medicare has rote series of annual check ups, but they won’t cover my Zepbound prescription, which has enabled me lose 80 pounds.
Even though the weight loss has been spectacular for my numbers. I am so lucky to be able to afford to pay for it out of pocket!
Hey, congrats on the weight loss improving your numbers. Anything that will help with your health will help with your spoons, and then you can fill your time with enjoyable things. I’m a little jealous 😄. I’ve got at least 15 more years of the grind ahead of me, though I’m grateful I get to work again, so…
It’s funny what you say about your MFT program, since I am 25 years removed from my MSW program and can’t remember a damn thing about all those theories but really wish I could as a baby therapist now! Do you ever regret not finishing or should I say not doing the MFT work?
And, Cat Dump is here to stay! Just for you. And for me 😆
I don’t regret not finishing the MFT degree, but I think I would have enjoyed that sort of practice, and as things have developed, I might have been able to work part time/remotely. I feel very certain that there aren’t enough therapists who understand the global impact on a person who has a disability.
A lot of the professionals who serve people with disabilities are too ableist to help newly disabled people adjust to a Plan B for themselves, if necessary.
But, that ship has sailed, and my tolerance for bullshit, and/or instructors who are teaching because they can’t function outside of the academic enclave, is at an all time low.
You’re so right about the lack of therapists who can capably serve the disabled (and chronically ill). I was beyond lucky to find one with lived experience of a post-viral fatiguing illness, and even then she was Canadian and I had to pay cash. Thankfully the exchange rate favors Americans in that case.
I really appreciate your return to the real world perspective. I think it’s beneficial to see a realistic integration that may not be picture perfect while still giving hope that a return to life is possible. Welcome back! And that brain fog/hummingbird meme made me lol
Recommendation: If you enjoyed Bridgerton, try "Perfect Match" on netflix; a funny and tear-jerking period Chinese drama with a similar premise; mother who runs a tea shop with many daughters needs to marry them off!
Ooh, that sounds right up my alley - thanks!
I’ll look out for this too🙂🙏
“Vibrating midget bird” 😂😂😂
Missed you so much, Amy! So glad you’ve returned and so proud of you for all your recent accomplishments. Yayaya!!! I’m happy to be here for whatever cadence you can manage. Ripley is so close to allowing pets from you! I can’t see it. 😍
😂😂 vibrating midget bird brings me back to the early days of long COVID, when I yelled out to Baldy in frustration, “the thing that turns the eggs!” Couldn’t come up with the word for spatula 🤦🏼♀️
Will keep you posted on Ripley - I think you might be right! I got a little closer yesterday 🤞🏻😬
Welcome back Amy! I’m so happy to hear about all the latest developments. I recently recommended The Tonic to a friend who thinks she has Long Covid. I look forward to your future updates!
Thanks so much, Paula! I hope you have been doing well?
Amy, I am so happy you are back. I was in a complete crash when you sent your last post and I so badly wanted to let you know how much I valued you and The Tonic, but didn’t have it in me. Actually……it has caused me stress that I didn’t follow through with a note and now I can let that go :-). The crash happened after a great trip to NYC and the east coast. I thought LC was behind me and hit the ground running when I returned home…….lesson learned and still learning that this is something that I am still dealing with and need to plan rest and downtime after something big…..especially with a time zone change. Every crash leads to a lesson on how to prevent the next crash. I noticed that I physically tensed when I read about your relapse, but am happy it was short lived. It’s amazing how easy it is to go back to old patterns when you are in the thick of things. Congratulations on your education and career.
Thank you Meghan! It means a lot to me to hear that you value what I’m doing here. Please know that the last thing I would want is for you to try to expend energy getting in touch with me when you’re in a crash, and then to feel stress about not being able to! It’s a good reminder to me to assume there could be folks out there appreciating The Tonic who just can’t reach out at the moment.
You are now maybe the fourth or fifth spoonie I’ve heard from who confirmed that they had a good bit of recovery going and then they crashed or had an adjustment period from travel. It takes so much out of us, all the planning/packing/stress of getting places on time/anxiety about the travel itself/physical energy expenditure of getting from place to place. We forget how much effort that is!
Wondering how you’re doing now?
Welcome back Amy! It is eerie how in sync we are. I just returned from a 12 day cruise from Venice to Athens. I was able to do so much and thought my expansion would miraculously continue once I got home after a day or two of jet lag recovery. It as reassuring to read you had a similar experience.
Congratulations on your recovery & education for your career! You are an inspiration to us all. I’m so grateful you introduced me to CFS Recovery. It has helped me improve immensely and I’m able to pass along the life lessons onto my family. Hopefully it breaks the cycle:). Cheers!
Molly! So great to hear from you! And how amazing about your cruise and what you could do 🤗. The dopamine hits to your brain must have been tremendous!
It is humbling, isn’t it - to realize we still need to expect our nervous systems to need extra time to recalibrate after a big expansion. These are still tremendous wins we’ve just racked up though. I’m so happy to hear CFS Recovery has been a big help to you!
My coach reminded me to that we get an adrenaline rush on vacation that we don’t get at home. I’m also happy to report that ai didn’t need a wheelchair in the airports. It was very empowering to be able to do all the walking.
Incredible! 🙌🏻
“Imperfect Women” on Apple is really good. Very soap-y and one of those slow reveals of who the murderer is kind of shows. I love that you watch Paradise too! Unbelievably good show. If you’re looking for a lighter, happier show, “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS is an absolute delight. “Your Friends and Neighbors” on Apple is really good too, though a little on the darker side. I didn’t know Dan Levy had a new show either so definitely going to have to check that out.
The Heathrow Airport gate thing totally threw me the 1st time I flew through there. It was for a connection too which was even more stressful. On my 2nd trip, I looked into their disability boarding services which made everything way easier (it has its own separate waiting room too). Vienna and Dublin airport do the same thing so it must be a European thing to not let you wait at the gate until a certain amount of time before the flight leaves (adding to the already stressful experience of travelling).
Glad you had a good trip and were able to navigate your symptoms coming back. Glad you’re hiatus was temporary too. Always happy to have you here.
So good to see The Tonic again and read your words, Amy! 🧡
Thank you, my friend! 💛
Happy to read that you are back! I’ve missed your articles, memes, and cat pictures 🫶🏼
Random cat update: I have been feeding a bunch of stray cats in my neighborhood. I think there’s about 6 at this point, I’m losing count 😂 but one that has gotten really friendly and I’m trying to convince it to make its way indoors. If I remember correctly (I might be wrong) I think that’s how you got your most recent cat. Anyways, glad you’re back and excited to read more Tonic!
Thanks for coming back to read my stuff!
And oooh - the cat distribution system™️ strikes again! It’s wild - with all our cat stories, none of our indoor cats has become so from being taken in as a stray. Ripley is our biggest attempt and hope so far 🤞🏻. How close are you with the one? Please keep me posted!
Of course, I was happy to see your name pop up on my timeline! Is Ripley an outdoor kitty?
Also, I got the cat to walk into my house the other day! Only for a minute but definitely progress. I might have to just use the cat trap eventually but I hate doing that 🫣 it’s at an age where I really want to get it healthcare and spayed/neutered though so I’m starting to get impatient hahaha.
It brought me a lot of joy to read this! Love that you are following your intuition about the right next steps for you!
Thank you so much! I’ve been keeping up with your writing on my hiatus. We’re in a mutual admiration society 😊
Woo, I’ve missed you! And I can feel you’re fully revamped, refreshed energy. Added insight, deeper clarity. Know where you’re going wisdom and what you’re doing girl…..and the humour 😍 loving it all💫
I have 3 months to say so buckle up🤣
I’d’ve loved to drive down and meet you on your trip here to England! But I appreciate times will have been full on with study. What a gorgeous building - and those grounds…💚
Train delays, airport tactics, no concern for what we’re inhaling…ahhh, welcome to England
I hope the beauty of our countryside, your excellent planning skills and all round experience here made up for it.
Interesting re the creatine. Supplements have never been my thing (none of what I’ve done is perfect). Though I’ve dabbled on occasions and creatine is the one I will benefit from most right now (brain health) and I’m not yet consistent with it. #trying😉
“if you are far along in recovery and lay down to rest and don’t feel better afterwards, rest wasn’t what you needed.”
Hearing this.
I got so far in my recovery and what I needed changed.
Where once upon a time I needed rest the most. Connection became my need. Being accepted by those I was choosing to connect with.
Which meant going for meals a couple of times. Not having capacity to get changed (or brush my hair or clean my shoes) and having to leave the table to puke (Multiple times).
On the outside, it might have looked like I shouldn’t be out in public. But my need was for community and for space to be made for me.
Thankfully, these are the people I am now united with. I didn’t get “told off”. We all noticed my boots were muddy. Unconditional love, acceptance and support surrounded us.
That’s the transformation💫
So great to hear all this from you! First up, that estate is up in Skipton (in York). Was I anywhere near you? Would have loved to have met in person, though you’re right - they had us on a pretty tight schedule.
I’m trying to decide if I’m comforted by knowing these were all normal British “things” people accept, or not 🙃😂
Creatine…I swear I can taste and “feel” on my tongue the supposedly tasteless powder. This is what keeps me from using it regularly. Also, it may have caused an uptick in headaches for me, though my doc thinks that might have been the estrogen patch dose I’m on. Who knows!
Oh you’re kidding !!!!
Literally up the road,
You were in North Yorkshire, I live in East Yorkshire !
I would’ve been happy to drive for a quick cuppa and a hug🤗
We don’t really accept it here, we complain about it. And we secretly get off on the fact it gives us something to complain about. Because it’s become somewhat of addiction for us here (complaining)😆
I was shocked during all the train delays to not hear audible moaning on the platforms. Everyone put their heads down and just headed to the new platform. NYers love to groan in public! 🤣
Welcome back sissy! Great edition of The Tonic. So happy you’re back at it and I for one love the links! No one out there is quite as witty and eloquent (although I may be a teeny-bit biased!). Can’t wait to see you again in-person and I will definitely give those book recommendations a try. 😘
You are definitely biased, but I love you for it 👯♀️. I’ll try to give a few more links just for my sissy ❤️
Hi Amy, I’m doing much better after a long 4 months. I hadn’t had a true crash in 1.5 years and it is so awful, beyond words. I had amazing luck a year ago after getting some stellate ganglion blocks over a 7 month period, life changing! I started to crash in December and the blocks didn’t take. I now know that I need to be stable with baseline fatigue before getting a block. I started guancifine 1mg with NAC 600mg 6 weeks ago and it started kicking in at 2.5 weeks and I’ve been continuously improving. I asked ChatGPT if there was a medication that worked like a SGB and guancifine popped up. My block Dr wrote the prescription and said the research he saw also included 600mg of NAC. I am feeling very fortunate that I have found things that can help me.
This feels like such a familiar story to me, Meghan - and I am really glad to hear that guanfacine and NAC are helping. The familiar part to me is that in 2021, I was taking a cocktail of meds (maraviroc, ivermectin, and a statin), recommended by Dr. Bruce Patterson and his team at the Chronic COVID Treatment Center (have you heard of them? Used to be called IncellDx). I got markedly better and was able to work f/t and even go hiking again, all within 3-4 months. It was an incredible feeling, albeit one that all came crashing down in the fifth month when I had a super stressful workweek followed by a weekend hiking trip that all resulted in a spectacular crash. One that lasted over two years. All of those meds stopped working. And nothing after that worked either (including, among so many others, guanfacine and NAC). I (eventually) came to the realization that the meds had provided relief but did not address the underlying issue of nervous system dysregulation. I had to make some significant changes in my life to become regulated again and that took me the last two or so years to address, as you’ve likely seen in my posts. Even today, I have days or weeks where I can better sense that I am feeling “off” and I pull back on activity without hyper focusing on worry or panic about what any of it means.
I think if you can use the meds as symptom relief while simultaneously working on making friends with your nervous system, the positive changes will have more of a chance of sticking around. I am rooting for you! Stay in touch about it if you’d like.
Hey! So glad to see you’re back. Your plan of writing when the time is right, rather than when it is the scheduled time, is pretty much what I have been doing, and it works for me.
I have only been to Europe once, for a conference. The airport thing is interesting—I flew directly to Frankfurt (my conference was in Innsbruck). I discovered the existence of a Crip lounge of sorts on my way home. Sounds like it’s a thing at airports in Europe.
Frequently cancelled trains would freak me out—although I have been building in an extra day on each end of a trip for quite a while, especially if I have to get up early.
I am impressed that you’re doing so much career wise, and I just encourage you to not go 100 miles an hour until you know that the engine can take it.
Thanks Teri! Good to be back.
Why don’t they have crip lounges in airports here?! Ugh.
I was just telling my husband how tired I am these days. Working even part-time is taking a lot of energy, and I’m still trying to have a social life and run errands during all the free time. I’m going to have to dial something back. Thanks for the encouragement 🩶
It’s difficult, especially if you’re trying to make a specific amount of money. When I retired (it will be four years in October! I feel like I went through the first couple of years in a haze) I could have kept working, a least part-time, but it wasn’t an option.
Whether it is because of a new disability/chronic illness, or aging (in my case, aging with a disability that is changing), it is really hard to know how much energy I have, and what I want “spend” it on.
Did I ever tell you that I started a MFT program once, I guess about 20 years ago. I would work all day, and then take the commuter train down to a university where I would take an an evening class.
When I started, I gave myself permission to quit if I wanted to quit, for whatever reason. As it fell out, I loved the practical “how to talk to clients” classes, and detested the academic/theory classes. Apparently, the program had an “object relations” focus, which I thought was horseshit, if your goal was to help people.
Anyway, I quit after three semesters—4.0 GPA! Now, I wonder how I had the energy. LOL
Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t all about me, however. I hope that you reach a point where you can pick how you want to spend your spoons all the time. I can pick most of the time now, except for the seemingly endless doctors’ appointments of a 68 year old. None of those appointments are related to my ichthyosis! Medicare has rote series of annual check ups, but they won’t cover my Zepbound prescription, which has enabled me lose 80 pounds.
Even though the weight loss has been spectacular for my numbers. I am so lucky to be able to afford to pay for it out of pocket!
I am still a huge fan of your cat pictures!
Hey, congrats on the weight loss improving your numbers. Anything that will help with your health will help with your spoons, and then you can fill your time with enjoyable things. I’m a little jealous 😄. I’ve got at least 15 more years of the grind ahead of me, though I’m grateful I get to work again, so…
It’s funny what you say about your MFT program, since I am 25 years removed from my MSW program and can’t remember a damn thing about all those theories but really wish I could as a baby therapist now! Do you ever regret not finishing or should I say not doing the MFT work?
And, Cat Dump is here to stay! Just for you. And for me 😆
I don’t regret not finishing the MFT degree, but I think I would have enjoyed that sort of practice, and as things have developed, I might have been able to work part time/remotely. I feel very certain that there aren’t enough therapists who understand the global impact on a person who has a disability.
A lot of the professionals who serve people with disabilities are too ableist to help newly disabled people adjust to a Plan B for themselves, if necessary.
But, that ship has sailed, and my tolerance for bullshit, and/or instructors who are teaching because they can’t function outside of the academic enclave, is at an all time low.
You’re so right about the lack of therapists who can capably serve the disabled (and chronically ill). I was beyond lucky to find one with lived experience of a post-viral fatiguing illness, and even then she was Canadian and I had to pay cash. Thankfully the exchange rate favors Americans in that case.
Welcome back, Amy! And thanks for the generous support of LEVERAGE!
Love this for you
I really appreciate your return to the real world perspective. I think it’s beneficial to see a realistic integration that may not be picture perfect while still giving hope that a return to life is possible. Welcome back! And that brain fog/hummingbird meme made me lol
Thank you! Definitely no sugarcoating here. Just read your latest post too - so thrilled for you!