Before I got pregnant, I already knew I had a herniated disc at L5-S1. When I learned I was expecting, I naturally wanted to know how the two conditions would interact.
My Upright Birth Story, Part 2
There’s a difference between making a medically sound decision, and being okay.
My Upright Birth Story, Part 1
I wasn’t sure how giving birth would affect my sciatica, or how I would manage when I couldn’t sit down. This is my labor story.
I Have Chronic Sciatica and a Sitting Disability. Here’s How I Prepared for Childbirth.
No one could tell me how childbirth would affect my chronic sciatica. Nor did I know how I would get through labor when I could neither sit down nor lie on my back.
I Can’t Sit Down. This Is What My Pregnancy Was Like.
I did not care for pregnancy. Especially not with sciatica and a sitting disability. But I liked the prize at the end.
Book Review: The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
Part illness memoir, part self-help book, and part manifesto, it was an odd blend of genres with a narrative arc that didn’t quite match anything I’ve ever read. Ramey bounded through it all with an exuberance that defies her myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (one of Ramey’s many diagnoses).
Anti-Homeless Measures Are Anti-Sitting Disability
In their quest to deter the visibly homeless, cities are happy to accept the needs of those with sitting disabilities (and other health concerns) as collateral damage. In this velvet-gloved war, cities employ both design and the law to reserve public spaces for able-bodied, and preferably wealthy, citizens.
Book Review: Teach Us to Sit Still: A Skeptic’s Search for Health and Healing by Tim Parks
Teach Us to Sit Still is a thinking man’s memoir. Tim Parks is incapable of digesting an experience without putting it into words, and placing it in the center of web of newly connected thoughts. His pelvic pain bleeds over into the biographies of D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and even Gandhi.
Women’s Spines Are Made for Pregnancy
Since my existing back problems are hard enough to manage, I wanted to know what exactly would change with pregnancy. Would it exacerbate my existing problems, or put me at risk of new ones? Was there anything I could do to prepare myself?
Why Are Astronauts Weirdly Susceptible to Herniated Discs?
Astronauts face many unique job hazards, including an abnormally high rate of disk herniations. The ESA asked scientists to figure out why astronauts’ discs were in such bad shape.