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Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt

Soon, the air will be filled with Christmas and other holiday music! As someone who loves to sing and enjoy music, these coming weeks will be especially melodious. But even with the joy of music, I know that sometimes an uplifting tune might not exactly fit in with the experience of chronic illness and pain,…

I learned yesterday that a friend died in October. I knew she was very ill. She had reached out to me for moral support, and I had visited her twice in the hospital only a few days prior to her death. But although I asked a family member to keep me posted on her condition…

“It’ll take awhile to clear up.” “The time it takes for the med to begin to work varies, depending…” “You might have more pain for awhile before your symptoms subside…” “Rehab results might take a bit longer…” When I moved squarely into the world of chronic pain, I learned a hard lesson very quickly: “Time”…

Last week, I had a horrible time with a very debilitating migraine. Those of you who suffer from these awful things will understand how, in the initial onslaught, we might be taken aback – and feel fear. How long will it last? Will my “usual” meds work? What will the after effects be? Yes, even…

Breast Cancer Awareness Month reminds me of a stinging experience I had a few years ago. I once approached someone who schedules a lecture series focused on coping with cancer about speaking in one of her programs. She explained that, because I didn’t have cancer, there was no way my experience with chronic illness would…

A few years ago, someone asked me if I was in constant, chronic pain. I replied, “I am always aware of it.” I think my response was a bit confusing to the person who asked, and he did look puzzled. But it was a more accurate description of the place of chronic pain in my…

I was recently rebuffed by someone when I tried to be uplifting in conversation with someone who is very ill. The person who rebuffed me was adamant about a particularly negative ramification of illness and refused to entertain the notion that there could be anything positive coming from it at all. Well, of course, with…

After reading about the new and very specific medical coding that is being put in place because of the new healthcare regs, several odd-sounding scenarios struck me as funny, and I couldn’t resist sharing my humor with my docs (and I couldn’t wait to see if this drill-down-deep coding system was for real).  So, to…

The weather is still blistering hot here, and I feel it every time I go outside – and hours afterward. Even when the sun sets, the pavement is still warm, and there seems to be no relief from that sluggish sense of time suspended, energy zapped. Yet, of course, life moves on. Friends, errands, docs,…

Today, September 23, 2015, Pope Francis will celebrate the first Mass of Canonization to take place in North Ameria. The soon-to-be Saint is Junipero Serra, an 18th century Franciscan missionary who founded the first 9 of the California missions. I will blog more about this newest Saint and the canonization itself, but in this blog…
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