Beth Ruffin on Balancing Work Life With Health Challenges

Beth Ruffin owns a consulting business that teaches diversity, equity and inclusion in professional spaces. She focuses on self-empowerment, helping people learn to include themselves. Although Beth is extremely passionate about her work, finding the right work-life balance has been challenging since she lives with three chronic health conditions: fibromyalgia, Read more…

Karra Eloff on Maintaining Joyful Relationships in Spite of Chronic Illness or Chronic Pain

Karra Eloff wants to help individuals living with chronic pain or chronic illness maintain joyful relationships. She is the author of The Chronic Pain Couple: How To Be a Joyful Partner & Have a Remarkable Relationship in Spite of Chronic Pain. Her book is the result of years of research, Read more…

Severe Diverticulitis Almost Claimed Erik’s Life

18 years ago Erik was told he had the beginnings of diverticulitis, a condition characterized by inflammation of small pouches in the digestive tract. From then on he avoided foods like popcorn or seeds that could get caught in these pouches and cause infection. Besides these dietary restrictions, diverticulitis didn’t Read more…

Living with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome

Raven’s journey to be diagnosed with cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS) was deeply traumatic, not only due to their debilitating disease but from the way doctors treated them along the way. CVS is characterized by episodes of intense vomiting that can be severe enough to warrant emergency care. Raven says it’s Read more…

TheIncrediblePaco on Long COVID Impacting His Gaming Career

TheIncrediblePaco is a well-known content creator in the Mario Maker community, who was making his full-time living playing video games leading up to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tens of thousands of fans subscribe to his Twitch channel for live streams, and YouTube for edited videos. He became ill Read more…

How Rick Olderman’s Chronic Pain Journey Informed His Physical Therapy Career

Rick Olderman is a sports and orthopedic physical therapist with over 25 years experience. He is the author of Solving the Pain Puzzle: Cases from 25 Years as a Physical Therapist as well as the Fixing You® series of books to help people with chronic pain or recurring injuries. He Read more…

Overcoming a Parasite and C. Diff Infection: Kimberly Shares Her Story

Kimberly’s harrowing experiences with gastrointestinal issues go back about 10 years. At first she would have random bouts of diarrhea, but be fine for months in between. She didn’t seek medical care until about 7 years later when these issues had become so severe they were interfering in daily life. Read more…

Living with Parkinson’s Disease

In 2015 Karen noticed that her right arm was not swinging as normal when she walked. She was sent to a neurologist who quickly diagnosed her with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the body in a wide variety of ways. Symptoms can include tremors, slowed movement, muscle Read more…

LGBTQ Healthcare: What Are the Unique Medical Needs of This Community?

Troy is a nurse practitioner at a LGBTQ healthcare clinic in Seattle, Washington. He refers to it as gay providers taking care of the gay community, allowing a rare opportunity for himself and his colleagues to make meaningful differences in the lives of their patients. Many individuals across the spectrum Read more…

The Infuriating Contradictions of Undiagnosed Illness

Courtney refers to herself as a hot potato patient, being passed from specialist to specialist in search of a diagnosis to her mystery illness, but none of these providers have been willing to keep digging until an answer is found. She used to be an avid globe trotter while working Read more…