The ordinary days inside a long illness
Life measured in flare-ups, remissions and good mornings. Stories from people managing a condition that is not going away.
Maya EllisonEditor-in-chief & lead narrator
Living With
A first-generation student tracked every urgent class exit in a notebook. By semester’s end, it held the record her professors had mistaken for poor planning.
Maya Ellison · September 7, 2026 · 7 min
Living With
Twenty-eight stairs stood between a single parent and every errand. A notebook helped show what those stairs cost after a myasthenia gravis flare.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A winter outage cut power to Ruth’s oxygen concentrator. The warming center could not support medical equipment, so her niece tracked the batteries in a notebook until staying home was no longer possible.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Chemotherapy neuropathy made salon work slower and less certain. A paper appointment book showed Tasha what numb fingers were costing, and which changes let her keep working.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
Telehealth gave one student more control over her care, until failed captions and a missing interpreter left her locked out of an appointment she had attended.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
A serious food reaction changed lunch for a grade-schooler and both his parents. One notebook helped them keep food consistent without turning each meal into a warning.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A warehouse worker wanted Ramadan to feel familiar. His kidney care team, his relatives, and the pill organizer on his table pointed toward a different kind of month.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
A 15-year-old wanted camp counselors to protect her without tracking her. One index card helped her family draw a line between shared data and constant watching.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Her son could not return to the damp apartment where his breathing had worsened. The place she found cost $1,428 a month, forcing health into every part of the family budget.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A mother of two rebuilt mornings, play, and physical closeness around the days when rheumatoid arthritis left her unable to lift her toddler.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
Fibromyalgia had kept her from flying alone for four years. A notebook, wheelchair assistance, and a small comfort bag made a six-hour trip possible.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A woodworker changed his tools, teaching space, and designs after Parkinson’s disease altered his fine motor control. A notebook kept track of what still worked.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Standing workouts left her dizzy, then depleted for days. She moved closer to the floor and began measuring exercise by what happened afterward.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
After a hypomanic phase left her with a $4,862 card balance, she rebuilt her finances around automatic bills, a protected reserve account, and checks from her sister.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A central New Jersey supervisor hid intermittent numbness until an error printout showed 17 mis-scans. Moving off the dock made work safer and cut the overtime paying her bills.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Fullness and food aversions disrupted a Texas restaurant owner’s most basic work habit. He gave trusted cooks more authority while staying responsible for every plate and paycheck.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
At 34, a warehouse supervisor kept his weekly injection inside a lunch bag at work. Rotating shifts and open ridicule made privacy harder than the nausea.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Targeted therapy has kept his metastatic lung cancer stable for more than two years. His paper calendar still ends at each scan.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
At 46, Tasha kept clocking in to protect her paycheck and health coverage. Then fatigue, attendance points, and the end-of-month rent landed together.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
Her niece found the dentures in a kitchen drawer and little food in the refrigerator. The weight loss traced back to painful eating, costly groceries, and a dental clinic she could not reach.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
A warehouse worker on rotating shifts lost his appetite, then his quiet lunch break. A notebook helped him ask for small changes without telling coworkers why.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
A 52-year-old plumber went back under sinks while managing urinary leakage after prostatectomy. His notebook showed what each difficult day cost.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
A retired teacher chose active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer. His adult children had to learn that waiting could include tests, appointments, and a plan for change.
Maya Ellison · 8 min read
Living With
During exams, holding back her tics made it harder to think. A notebook helped her explain what classmates were seeing and ask school staff for room to work.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
An Oklahoma owner-operator learned that cab refrigeration could fail in small ways. A $17 thermometer now helps him protect his injections during 18-day runs.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
Fourteen months after ostomy surgery, she wanted to date again. A pocket notebook held the disclosure lines she kept revising, and the fears she could not edit away.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
She planned the grocery trip around the energy she had. Then the checkout line stopped moving, and an ordinary errand followed her home for days.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
For people living with multiple sclerosis, high temperatures can trigger sudden symptom flare-ups. Navigating July requires gel packs, shadow-mapping, and cold logistics.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
Eleven months after a schizophrenia diagnosis, a student returned with two classes, a quieter routine, and a notebook that helped her see what each day could hold.
Maya Ellison · 7 min read
Living With
After a total gastrectomy, eating stops being an unthinking pleasure and becomes a daily exercise in precise timing, volume, and patience.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
Three mornings a week, a retired teacher sits in a blue vinyl recliner while a machine cleans her blood, building a quiet life in the hours between salt and steel.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
Living with an invisible autoimmune flare means managing severe physical strain while bearing the quiet, relentless burden of having to prove you are ill.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
For years, Julian defined himself by the marathons he ran. Then MS reshaped his understanding of endurance.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
At forty-one, David thought Type 1 diabetes was a childhood condition until a simple blood test revealed why he had spent months losing weight.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
Living With
For twelve years, Sarah has mapped her life around infusion schedules, learning what clinical remission really means between clinic visits.
Maya Ellison · 5 min read
One story a day
One health journey each morning — no advice, no alarm, just company for the road.
