Many people have facades. Facades can be a means of preservation. A kind of armor that no one can penetrate. A shield that keeps others from knowing too much about you. With this armor on, you can pick and choose what or whom the outside world perceives of you. It …

I’ve been through a lot in my life. I grew up with an alcoholic mother that in October of 2008 committed suicide and passed away. Yeah, we might not have gotten along as well as much as I would have liked us to, but it was still the hardest thing …

Heart disease is already a difficult fight. When you suffer from panic attacks it can become even harder. Panic attack symptoms are entirely mental, with no physical cause, and yet the experience of a panic attack – even in those without heart conditions – can make you feel like you’re …

One of the things I’ve noticed in all that I’ve read about Endometriosis, whether it be a medical journal article or a blog from a fellow fighter, is the hard topic of  a struggle for  someone who lives in chronic pain, is the dependency that you develop of prescription pain  …

Reprinted with permission from the Susan G Komen West Michigan website: A few months before her 37th birthday, Angie Christine decided to fulfill a dream of entering Jennifer Hendershott’s All Women’s Weekend bodybuilding competition. Her recently adapted exercise routine and ultra-healthy lifestyle had finally begun to pay off. She was …

Hey girls!  My name is Nicole. I am 18 years old. For the first couple of years of my life, I was an active, fun girl – that is, until 2000 when I started having extreme joint pain and was always tired. For about 2 years doctors couldn’t tell me …

I was an average 34-year-old in a relationship, engaged, trying to have children, developed a seizure problem which we got under control – or did we? – was given medication after medication. I still had problems and two neurologists later I discovered that I have multiple sclerosis. I was devastated …

I was 33 years old when I was diagnosed. It wasn’t even that I found a lump, per say, but I kept having this “full” feeling in my left breast like after I had my kids and my milk was coming in.  It was a very strange feeling. This went …

This month is very special to me, after all organ donation has saved my life two times now! I am one of the lucky ones. There were just over 28,500 transplants in 2011 and I was one of them, but there are still over 113,000 still waiting. Those are men, …

My story begins in my kitchen while making dinner for my family. I was 30 years old. I was standing at the counter talking with my son and preparing for dinner, when I had a sudden sharp stabbing pain in my left side and lower back. This pain caused me …