Living with ME and other disabling chronic illnesses often comes with grief:
grieving the loss of the life we once had or might have had;
grieving the loss of access to activities and communities;
grieving the loss of connection with family and friends who don’t or won’t or can’t understand our experiences and limitations.
At pempod we understand grieving and acceptance as important processes that help us cope with ME and chronic illness so we can find ways of managing our expectations, caring for ourselves, and accessing some quality of life when possible.
This is a subject that comes up in many of our episodes but in this series Dan interviews people specifically on this topic.
Grief Stories: Episode 6
Ash lives in Sheffield in the UK. He has been living with POTs and ME for a number of years. In this episode he shares the challenges of spending the majority of his time in bed and the grief that comes with that. We discuss long distance relationships, and the benefits of having a good therapist.
Grief Stories: Mid-Season review - Dov and Dan reflect
Dov returns and we discuss the project so far and our own reflections on grief (and Dan’s bubble hat!).
Starting at around 32 minutes Dan reads three written contributions from Lydia, Kirsty and Pamela.
Pamela's blog recounting her 50 years with ME can be found here.
We have five more Grief Stories episodes to come in the following weeks.
Grief Stories: Episode 5
Colleen has been living with ME/CFS since 1989, as she says 'it's been a while'. Colleen oversees two facebook groups:
ME-ICC & Other marginalised diseases (public group)
ME-ICC Info (Private group)
Grief Stories: Episode 4
Tamara shares her experience of becoming ill with ME/CFS and her attempts to adjust to life "as a jailed Tiger".
Grief Stories: Episode 3
Rachel Horton is a Health Coach living in Michigan USA. She shares from her own experience of CFS as well as reflecting on her work in the health profession.
Grief Stories: Episode 1
In this episode we hear six unique voices of individuals living with Chronic Illness: Laura, Steph, Katie, Jo, Joy and Paul. Each reflects on the topic of grief and how Chronic Illness has impacted them in different way with regard to living grief. The song, Nobody Knows, used throughout, is by Laura Vitale (who shares her own experience).