Black and Blue Ribbons
— Karen Del Vecchio

I can’t believe there’s only a couple of weeks until Christmas. It feels like this year has flown by! Every year on the weekend before Thanksgiving, I spend time with my two best friends…

With Christmas rapidly approaching, I’m excited about the holidays — partly because I’ll feel more confident in what I eat this year. Between my alpha-gal syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) food…

This week’s message is simple: Don’t get walking pneumonia from your students (or anyone else). A little while ago, I felt like I was coming down with a cold. I didn’t feel too bad,…

I’ve been thinking lately how awareness of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) has changed over the years. Growing up, I’d never heard of it. The first time I did was as an adult, when a…

It’s the time of year when illness starts whipping through the school halls like wildfire. Recently, we’ve had students out with seemingly everything you can think of, including flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, standard colds, and…

As I wrote last week, October tends to be a stressful month at my job, where I work with students on their post-high school plans. With November approaching, I’m thankful…

The past few weeks at work have been enormously stressful. We school counselors often refer to this month as “Sucktober,” because it tends to be when the honeymoon of a new school year has…

Some aspects of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) are just weird. There are the expected symptoms — tight and sore muscles, chronic fatigue, frequent injuries, bruising — but there are also effects…

“Ms. D! Ms. D! Will you come play volleyball with us?” I heard this call on a recent Friday afternoon, when our school’s internet was down and I was supervising kids who were enjoying…

Last week seemed to drag on forever. Although I was finally feeling better after a rough patch, it got me thinking about how rest is a double-edged sword for me with Ehlers-Danlos…

Last week when I finally caught up with my massage therapist, Kim, after a six-week break — I was sick, then she was — I told her she’d get to play a game called…

The other week, I felt a twinge in my back when I woke up, but I hoped I’d just slept funny and it would soon go away. As the day went on, though, the…