When I first became disabled in 2017 with a spinal CSF leak, the pain and effects of a leak on my body precluded me from writing, or reading, or even finding the words to speak properly. Over time, as my body adjusted to a chronic spinal cerebrospinal (CSF) leak, I was able to add in some typing hours in the morning, when my pain is at its lowest point and I have “uptime” available to stand and type. The rest, I did with my thumbs on my phone from bed.
In the process I realized that it’s the act of typing, or writing by hand, that seems to help my brain formulate and pour out creative thoughts. Thumb typing, or voice to text, just don’t seem to cut it. In the 7 years of living with a spinal CSF leak, I have not found a bed option for my computer. I can’t lift a laptop stand onto myself in bed, and I’m unable to use a stand with a base because I can’t bring my computer over to it.
But, I thought, what about a podcast? What if I could lay in bed and record from my phone and not have to use “uptime” at all? I wanted a place where I could talk about the big life changes we go through as humans, and how we adapt and evolve and learn to find our way through the messiness intact.
My new podcast, The Way Through
I get so many questions about how to navigated the world of chronic pain and illness, and the mental mindset required to even find joy again. People want to know how to thrive despite of a diagnosis that has no prognosis of being ‘cured’.
Though these are all hard questions, they’re important questions, questions that are so very human to ask and want answers to in the unbearableness of big life changes. Whether I can provide them, I do not know. But what I can do is share my experience, and talk with others who have also gone through it, and learn about what they’ve done to get through those hard times.
I hope you enjoy it!
