Contest Entry: My Renewable Source of Energy

This month we had a contest and asked some of our readers, members and volunteers to write a creative peice about What has BYDLS and "the spoon theory" meant to you? The short essay was written by Linda C. Defew My Renewable Source of Energy Rheumatoid Arthritis started out like a ghost—invisib

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Contest Winner: Have you Read the Spoon Theory Lately?

This month we had a contest and asked some of our readers, members and volunteers to write a creative peice about What has BYDLS and "the spoon theory" meant to you? The following essay is one of our winners and was written by Caitlyn Pilkington I have to admit, I had to read “The Spoon Theory�

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Contest Winner: What has BYDLS and “the spoon theory” meant to you

This month we had a contest and asked some of our readers, members and volunteers to write a creative peice about What has BYDLS and "the spoon theory" meant to you? The following essay is one of our winners and was written by Elizabeth DeLouise! How I Came to ButYouDontLookSick.com and Why I am N

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Personal Essay: Your Own Guardian Angel

Very few people truly understand the hardship that a person endures when they are diagnosed with an invisible condition. However, there are the select few individuals that understand the agony of having a chronic condition. Some of them understand because they share the same condition. Others have s

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The Pain of Disease and the Triumph of Togetherness

* Looking back on 5 years of ButYouDontLookSick.com There’s a pain that can be worse than any physical disease. It’s the loneliness you feel when you see your friends go out and do things without a second thought and how that is an impossible dream for you. How the simple act of attending class

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5 year essay: My new “career” at ButYouDontLookSick.com

This month is the 5 year anniversary of ButYouDontLookSick.com!! I’m not an old timer like Wendy…I only joined ButYouDontLookSick.com on July 3, 2005. Since then, checking the message boards has been a daily activity – if not more than once a day – or an entire afternoon or evening! I don

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Wendy Jones, butyoudontlooksick.com Message Board Host Shares Her Thoughts on Our 5 Year Anniversary

This month is the 5 year anniversary of ButYouDontLookSick.com!! Wendy Jones, butyoudontlooksick.com Message Board Host Shares Her Thoughts on Our 5 Year Anniversary. 5 years, what an achievement. So many websites, or message boards don't make it to such a prestigious milestone, which just goes

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Personal Essay: Just Let it Roll

I like to avoid stress. That is, I intentionally avoid adding stress, in addition to the everyday stresses I cannot avoid. For example, I can't avoid pain, no matter which way I dodge. I can't avoid the necessity of working or office politics. I can't avoid all family obligations and relationship st

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Note to my Mom – On Mother’s Day

I would like to thank my mom for her persistence and her nagging. Persistence for raising a child with chronic complaints. She knew I did not sleep well, she knew I had joint pain and she knew I seemed to catch everything that was going around. She could have thought I was faking it, to get out o

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Coping With the Aftermath of a Stroke

I was thirty two years old when I had my stroke. I banged on the screen door window to catch the dog’s attention; the glass shattered and severed two tendons in my arm and a bunch of nerves in my hand. The surgery was extremely successful in repairing that damage, but after I got home from the h

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