By Jody Smith I have a bad history with late November and the month of December, ever since I first got ME/CFS 28 years ago. Some of that has to do with the shorter daylight hours in my hemisphere, but a lot of it is wrapped up with the encroaching Holiday Season. December plays host [...]
by Jody Smith I’m Canadian, so I hear a lot of good-natured jokes about how Canadians apologize all the time. It’s funny in part because … in part, it’s true. But you know who else apologizes a lot? Chronically ill people. And that ain’t so funny. Now some of us were probably like that before [...]
By Jody Smith Every year we who are able do our bit to bring greater awareness to the plight of the most severely ill 25% in the ME/CFS community. Does this bring greater awareness to anyone outside of our community? I wish I knew. But we carry on in this endeavour because these precious people [...]
by Jody Smith I have been self-isolating for over two weeks now. Not because of COVID-19. At least, not at first. Like many of you, I spend a great deal of time in my house because of ME/CFS. I was housebound due to a resurgence of ME/CFS symptoms since the beginning of March. And like [...]
by Jody Smith Hey, it’s the beginning of a new year. And 2020 has a nice fresh ring to it. This time of year are you thinking about the future? I’m not talking about New Year Resolutions. I ditched those years ago. Me, I have a hard time looking to the future. When it comes [...]
by Jody Smith This year marks my twenty-eighth holiday season fractured by ME/CFS. Some years have been better, some worse. All of them have been thrown off kilter in one form or another for me and my family. My first Christmas marred by ME/CFS was in 1992. My husband had had fibromyalgia for four years. [...]
by Jody Smith On my side of the world, change is brewing. Here in North America, the cold and dark brooding of winter looms and glowers. In some areas it has already hit, hard. Temperatures dropping, days shortening … for someone like me who lives with ME/CFS and seasonal affective disorder, this is a daunting [...]
by Jody Smith The ME/CFS community is all too familiar with the realities of invisible disabilities. As a matter of fact we are rife with them. For this reason, we’re happy to make some noise for Invisible Disabilities Week. If you have an invisible disability, you’re living with one or more physical, mental or neurological [...]
by Jody Smith There just aren’t enough hours in the day for the person with ME/CFS. At least, it’s been like this for me. It’s not that I’m so terribly busy. Indeed, I am not. Not like I used to be busy, before illness. The complicating factor and really, the only factor I have [...]
by Jody Smith Don’t look now! The holiday season is on its way. I’ve lived through decades of them with ME/CFS. So have many of you in our chronically ill community. That’s beyond sad for all of us. But at least we have some idea what we’re contending with, and have learned our ways of [...]
The advent of autumn can hit Jody Smith pretty hard. She’s learned a few ways to lessen the damage every year. How do you handle the change of seasons? Summer is my best season, hands down. Fewer ME/CFS symptoms get in my way. After a while, I tend to forget that this is a summer hiatus … [...]
Have you heard of our Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis Day of Understanding and Remembrance? Please join Jody Smith in observing this day and honoring the 25% of those with ME/CFS who are most severely ill. Can you read these words I’ve written on this page? Good. Then you know that I am NOT an example of [...]