Diaries of a Lupus Chick — Marisa Zeppieri

If you, like me, live with chronic illness, have you ever felt like you think about your mortality more often than your healthy friends and family members do? Since before my lupus diagnosis, when I knew something was…

At the start of each new year, I find myself awestruck by what it could bring to my life. While social media has a funny way of making us feel an overwhelming pressure for a “new year, new me,”…

Chronic illness can bring a variety of challenges and limitations into our lives that are out of our control. For me, one of those was my inability to have children of my own. That was a hard pill to…

It’s the holiday season again, and while it’s my favorite time of year, it’s also the season that stresses me out the most. If you have lived with chronic illness for a while, as I have,…

If you have a chronic illness, I imagine you’ve experienced a moment of guilt at some point because you weren’t able to get out of bed due to a flare or other ongoing symptoms. I even bet…

Picture it: You’re deep in a lupus flare and have been in bed for weeks. In the silence, you think, “What is my purpose if I’m constantly sick?” or “How do I find meaning in my everyday life?”…

It can be a sticky topic — working (or not working) when living with a chronic illness. We travel so many journeys when we navigate this aspect of our lives. The fact is, each one of us will, at…

Having lived with lupus for decades and having spoken to countless chronic illness warriors over the years, I’ve realized that while our varied symptoms hit us differently, we all face one unifying dilemma: toeing the line of looking…

Have you noticed that certain stressors, environmental factors, lack of sleep, or foods seem to cause lupus symptoms to suddenly express themselves, or current symptoms to increase in severity? If so, you may have identified a trigger. When…

Few couples hearing the term “in sickness and in health” at their wedding have thoughts of chronic illness enter their mind. But the reality is, with almost half of the American population dealing with some type of…

Dealing with a chronic illness each day can be frustrating and overwhelming, so how do we factor in grief and the grieving process when someone close to us passes away? How do we actively mourn the passing…

One topic I hear about often when it comes to lupus and chronic illness is the subject of employment. In the past 17 years, I’ve heard some incredible stories of compassionate employers from people living with lupus.