Category: Supports
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Physical and Emotional Pain Need Equal Attention in CMT and Polyneuropathy Communities
Alongside research for treatments and cures, the CMT community needs to take a hard look at some elephants in the room — the most common and most remnediable pains and struggles impacting our quality of daily life.
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BILLY’s in Canada now!
Previously it was only possible to get BILLY shoes in Canada through retailers like Brainsport.ca and hsktkids.ca. Now BILLY is shipping from Canada to Canadian customers. Just go to billyfootwear.ca.
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Fuck Pain! And People Who Don’t Get It
Some medical facts and advice about pain — and then some straight talk about the question pain makes more acute: why live at all?
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If Pain Makes You Avoid Exercise, You’ll Gain More of It
A recent study of people with CMT who engaged in athletic activities at least once a week (mostly gym workouts) for at least six months showed their pain levels were noticeably lower than another group that didn’t exercise. Depression levels and overall Quality of Life scores on surveys were better for the folks who hit…
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CMT, Depression, and Anxiety
It’s not surprising to learn from another (and more detailed) study (summarized here) than I’ve seen before that people with CMT are very often dealing with depression and/or anxiety, especially with more severe versions of the disease, and many go “untreated.” “Untreated” in this case means “unmedicated,” and there is a lot more that can…
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Asking for the ADA Suite
The hotel receptionist said there was a generator running near my room. In fact there was a giant truck with a generator and air conditioning system running 24/7 right outside the ADA room’s door to cool the whole building I’d be in. He said go check it out a few minutes and come back if…
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How long can you afford to hide it?
It’s too much trouble and humiliation to explain and ask for a little help or tolerance when hiding a disability and lumping it is how you’ve learned to cope best. That’s not a good psychological place to be in, long-term, and I can see how it’s not going to serve well post-40s.
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Lord Grizzly
Here is one of the CMT-related poems I’ve written. There aren’t many. This was the first and is surely the longest. It’s in the long-line style of James Schuyler, who offered a really fun, liberating model a few 30/30s ago. The title nods to Frederick Manfred (AKA Feike Feikema) who wrote a historical-fictional account of…
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Disease, Depression, and Family Denial
CMT and other hideable/hidden diseases may often be denied by the people closest to you — a potentially devastating, psychologically defeating, and depressing, gaslit reality that is toxic and abusive.
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BILLYs
Thick sole, wide toe box, big ankle support, and the upper unzips to fold open for easy access and orthotic insertion. What’s not to like about BILLYs?