Tag: connective tissue
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20-Seconds to Improve your Doctor Appointments
https://resources.littleenginepatientadvocacy.com/20-second-appointment-opener-worksheet
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2025 Holiday Gift Guide for the Chronic Illness Community
Ho, ho, ho and mistletoe, my friends. If you’re like me, then you have two goals for holiday shopping this year: sticking to a budget and supporting small businesses. And bonus points if it comes from small businesses and creators living with chronic illness. Because helping each other is the best kind of gift. Every…
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How to Keep a Medical Binder Without Losing Your Mind (or Your Labs)
Raise your hand if you’ve ever walked into a doctor’s appointment and immediately blanked on your medication list? How about the date of your last MRI? Or what that “mystery rash” even looked like? Yep, me too. Keeping up with chronic illness in the face of fatigue, brain fog, and dismissive providers requires a strategy.…
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Impatient Patients: Why Rushing Hurts More Than It Helps
Hi, my name is Kristina, and I was that patient. The impatient one. The one who refused to wait another second for answers. I was sick, scared, and desperate for someone, anyone, to help. I ping-ponged between functional medicine practitioners, integrative doctors, and traditional doctors, thrusting my palms out like Oliver Twist, begging, “Please, sir,…
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Quit Doing This One Thing in Your Medical Appointments
I used to think that if something was wrong with my health, I’d just go to the doctor, they’d figure it out, and I’d get better. Easy peasy. That belief lasted until 2019, when my body started glitching. Pins and needles, tingling, and patchy numbness in my hands and feet started one morning and wouldn’t…
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3 Truths About “Why Me” Moments
Hi, friend. I see you over there, drowning in the existential soup of “Why me?” And listen, it’s valid. Chronic illness hit you like a meteor, and now you’re just trying to figure out how to dodge the next one. I get it. The thing is, I care about your “why me” because it’s part…
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Why the Name Change from Sjögren’s Syndrome to Sjögren’s Disease Is a Big Deal
Cue LL Cool J and my bad rapping and join me in chatting, “Don’t call it a syndrome!” Ok, bad pun out of the way… In 2024, the global Sjögren’s community dropped a truth bomb: they officially renamed Sjögren’s Syndrome to Sjögren’s Disease. And I, for one, couldn’t be more thrilled. At first glance, it…
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MSing the Mark: Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Mimicking Multiple Sclerosis
Note: I am not a medical provider. Opinions in this article are based on my own research and personal experiences. Mission: Diagnosis After a particularly bad virus the month prior, I awoke to pins and needles in my hands and feet in April of 2019. The sensation was so intense that my feet felt numb…
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Navigating Chronic Illness with a Patient Advocate
So, you’re chronically ill. Your body’s throwing curveballs, the doctor’s office is practically a second home, and your insurance company treats you like that kid who keeps raising their hand, but never gets called on. Sound familiar? Yeah, I’ve been there. It’s exhausting. That’s where an independent patient advocate comes in, your trusty sidekick in…
Little Engine Patient Advocacy 