The Medical Dorm

Dear Everybody who trained my service dog,                 Over the past four years you have put tireless hours in to raising a puppy that will become my service dog in just a few short weeks.  As if that is not enough,  you give the dogs away for free. Being a college student raised by a single mom I could never afford a dog, but that does not mean that I don’t desperately need the help.             Your organization truly helps people that are often times ignored by society.  I don’t have much so all I can do is say thank you over and over again but that will never be enough to actually convey what I am feeling. Everybody that had a role in training any dog in this program is my hero. Not even six months ago they were are all strangers to me. Little did I know that they existed and wanted more than anything to change somebo...

College Survival Tip #2 There are things that professors do not always understand. I may look perfectly healthy, but I am not.  They cannot understand the countless appointments, days where you cannot get out of bed, the days the medications just do not work, etc.  The list is simply endless.  Because of that we have decided to write an open letter to all professors so they can better understand what we go through on a day to day basis. Dear Professor, I am one of your many students.  However, I am different than my peers.  I have a chronic illness and / or disability.  That means that I have limits, and I know them.  It means that I cannot always work at the pace that my peers do.  I go to more doctor appointments than you can imagine, I practically live in the hospital, and can singularly keep a pharmacy in business.  Please understand that I want more than anything to attend, and show up to your class.  However, that may no...

It is always hard to disclose your medical condition / disability.  You never want to be seen as less than, or unable to do what is asked of you.  You do not want to disappoint or let down those who count on you. There comes that time every semester where you have to talk to professors. This can be very scary.   While it may seem unnecessary at times, you never know what is going to happen in the future.  Is something going to go wrong in class?  Are you going to end up in the hospital?  The possibilities for this are sadly endless. Before talking to your professors make sure to talk to disability services. Often times they are going to be your biggest advocates. They are also somebody you can turn to in a time of crisis or if professors are less than understanding. Helping students get accommodations is what they do, there is not much you can say to surprise them.   Know that professors legally cannot ask you about you specific disability...

We want The Medical Dorm to be able to help those around us.  We want to help raise awareness and help individuals understand life with a chronic illness.  We also want to be able to help those in our shoes (AKA college students) be able to follow their dreams and achieve their goals.  We decided to make a new section of our blog filled with various college survival tips.  These posts will hopefully be able to inform people with and without chronic illnesses ways to navigate college life.  Ranging from talking to professors to living on campus and everything else inbetween.  Within the next few weeks we are also hoping to join the group Chronic Illness Bloggers.  If you are new to the blog thanks for visiting us and if you have been here before thanks for sticking with us! WE BELIEVE IN YOU! -Nemo and Tremors

There are always fears in the chronic illness world.  There is the fear that you won’t be diagnosed.  The fear that the treatment won’t work.  Or, the fear that there is nothing more that can be done.  Everyone has fears, and at times you have to face them.  Today, we are talking about a fear that many people have, not just those with chronic illnesses.  Needles.  I mean, needles aren’t great.  They poke and when you are in the hospital there are always needles at the ready.  We are sharing our two stories about how our fear of needles has grown and changed.   Tremors: When I was little I HATED needles with a passion.  I hated getting vaccinations, and would dread the appointments.  Now, all of that has changed somewhat.  I have been told by a number of people that I am too comfortable around needles now.  I started having injections in the back of my head once a month for alopecia around six years ago. ...

Over this past year, my life has had a lot of changes in it. Walking has become increasingly difficult. In fact today I went to a doctors appointment where the doctor said that either I would have to walk with a dislocated hip or a hip contracture. There is nothing that the doctors can do anymore. For the most part, I will continue to loose my ability to walk until I am wheelchair bound or mostly wheelchair bound. Similarly I was diagnosed with a condition where the treatment would give me heart failure. This is difficult because this condition makes it very hard to walk, or even stand up. Either I can treat one condition and most likely damage my heart, or I can protect my heart and deal with having to be mostly sedentary. Clearly, there is no option that is good at the current moment. The reason that I am writing about this is not to talk about how my medical conditions are making my life difficult, but instead it is to talk about new hope. This weekend I was able to go and train ...