Black and Blue Ribbons
— Karen Del Vecchio

Each morning after I wake up, I take stock of how I feel. Is my back stiff? Does it hurt? How about my shoulder? Did I sleep wrong and aggravate it? How about my…

Any morning I wake up and see a heat advisory on my phone’s weather app, I know I’m in for a fun day. Or more likely the opposite. Last week, I was smack in…

I remember watching the ball fly past my last defender and realizing I had to choose: I could either run out from the goal, in hopes of beating the other team’s offensive player to…

Summer means I have a break from teaching, which is great for rejuvenating myself for the next school year. But it’s also easy for me to do too much because I have more free…

Over the years, I’ve found a few things that help me manage Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). Readers of this column likely know that one important thing is getting massages. It’s really the…

Sometimes the pain from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is just weird. I don’t have a better way to describe it. A specific area may hurt when I’m in a pain flare, but it mostly…

While driving to work recently, I realized I was in one of my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome “twisted pretzel” phases. That’s what I call it when my body feels out of whack. I often notice…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I wound up with a massive bruise on my left arm, courtesy of a grumpy horse. As much as I dislike the huge bruises I…

Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I didn’t have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), specifically how it shaped my life choices before I knew I had it. Undoubtedly, my life would…

Even though I’m aware of my physical limitations, I’m often bad about respecting them when doing so would keep me from completing the task at hand. I’m probably a good Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS)…

Some weeks just feel eternal. It’s like you’re clawing your way along until Friday, desperate for a chance to get some rest and downtime to prepare for the next week. Sometimes, though, weekends aren’t…

Apparently, I’ve been compiling an unintended list of stupid things not to do when you have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). First I fell out of a Kubota tractor while driving through a field.