Here’s a full list of all the updates I have written. I hope they are some small help to you.
Chronic fatigue
- What does chronic fatigue feel like?
- Endometriosis & making friends with chronic fatigue
- Memory loss – the embarrassing side effect of chronic fatigue
- Working with chronic fatigue
- How to get a good nights sleep
Chronic pain
- Endometriosis: what does the pain feel like?
- Endometriosis & learning your levels of pain
- Endometriosis is so much more than just “bad period pain”
- Talk to us when we’re in pain
- We need to talk about chronic pain more
- If you’re in pain all the time, why don’t you just take painkillers?
- Why don’t more women have smear tests? Because they really, really hurt
- Getting a diagnosis of a second long term illness
- Why pain free days are weird
- Why do people in pain turn up at A&E?
- Why invisible chronic pain is the poor cousin of physical health
Pain management
Coping mechanisms
- You can be ill and happy
- Required reading: Havi Carel’s Illness
- Managing endometriosis so it doesn’t manage you
- Coming to terms with your endometriosis diagnosis
- Endometriosis & the difficulty of asking for help
- On being positive – endometriosis isn’t the end
- The shame of endometriosis
- Keeping your independence when you have endometriosis
- How I self manage my endometriosis pain
- Getting ready for the winter
- Getting help with endometriosis through the Expert Patients Programme
- How to travel with chronic illness
- The importance of support groups for managing chronic illness
- The importance of keeping a pain diary
Productivity & exercise
- How I learnt to stop worrying and relearnt to cycle
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Cycling with endometriosis – yes you can get on your bike with chronic pain
- How knitting helps me with my chronic pain and fatigue
- How to learn a new language while you have a long term illness
- If we’re not happy, we have to change things
- How to manage having too much to do (with chronic pain)
Endometriosis symptoms
- Endometriosis immune system problems are making me miserable
- Do you consider yourself disabled?
- When you have endometriosis babies seem to be everywhere
- Endometriosis & the fear of getting worse
- Endometriosis continues to defy the textbooks
- An interview on my experience of endometriosis diagnosis & treatment
- When other women aren’t supportive about periods and underestimate endometriosis
Endometriosis treatments
- My experience of using the Mirena to treat endometriosis pain
- How to prepare for your endometriosis laparoscopy
- Endometriosis pain relief after a hysterectomy
- Preparing for your laparoscopy checklist
Working with endometriosis
- How to work with endometriosis
- 10 things I learnt about my chronic illness from volunteer work
- Some reasonable adjustments ideas for working with endometriosis
Explaining to others
- Learning to manage people’s expectations when you have chronic illness
- Why you should forgive the fit people in your life
- The problem with “how are you?”
- Family, friends and compassion fatigue
- Instead of silence, ask someone with a chronic illness lots of questions
- So how do we keep going?
- I’m not “better” I’m simply managing better
- I complain too much? No, I’m restrained when it comes to my illness
- We are the experts when it comes to our illnesses
- Are you the youngest ill person in the room?
- How to support someone with endometriosis
- The problem with “I hope you feel better”
- We are not to blame for our long term illnesses
- The three types of people who don’t believe you’re in pain
Invisible illness
- A chronic illness is very hard work
- Spare a thought for the chronically ill this Christmas
- Illness makes us all equal
- “You can’t be ill. You look fine.”
- People treat you differently when you’re ill
- Illness can be extremely isolating
- Doctors don’t always know best
- Feeling down: how chronic illness can effect your self esteem
- How others can talk about how we live with illness
Endometriosis news and information
- Endometriosis UK information day – October 2012
- Endometriosis UK information day report 2014
- I’m taking part in the Million Woman March for endometriosis in London – come say hi
- What would you improve about your endometriosis treatment?
- Q&A on endometriosis at Bristol’s St Michael’s hospital
- I’m attending the Endometriosis UK information day 2014
- Endo what film review: a triumph for endometriosis patients everywhere