"Surviving Chronic Illness" is now "A Body Rebels"

Episodes

21
May 22, 2026

Oxygen Therapy in Public and the Quiet Social Reality of Living with Sarcoidosis

Wearing oxygen in public with sarcoidosis changes more than breathing. It changes the way people look at you, the way they try not to look at you, and the quiet assumptions they carry about what chronic illness is supposed to look like. In elevators, stores, and ordinary public spaces, those silent reactions tell their own story. This episode explores oxygen therapy, visible illness, social discomfort, and the strange gap between expectation and reality. It is about being seen, being misread, an...
20
May 19, 2026

The Waiting Room Anxiety Nobody Talks About: Chronic Illness Test Results and Relief

Waiting for medical test results with chronic illness can feel like sitting through an awards show you never agreed to attend. Every pause carries weight, every glance feels loaded, and your mind fills in the blanks before anyone speaks. Living with sarcoidosis and heart failure means learning how to exist in that space between testing and knowing. But sometimes, the outcome shifts. Sometimes your body gives something back. This is a story about that moment when fear loosens its grip, even brief...
19
May 15, 2026

The Guilt I Carried That Was Never Mine: Living with Chronic Illness and Letting Go

A moment from childhood can quietly shape how we carry guilt for decades. In this episode, I share the story of losing my stepfather at thirteen and the belief I carried for years that it was somehow my fault. Living with sarcoidosis and heart issues has taught me that emotional weight does not just live in the mind, it settles into the body. This is a reflection on how the stories we create in moments of trauma can linger, and how slowly, imperfectly, we begin to let them go. This podcast is n...
18
May 12, 2026

Why “You Don’t Look Sick” Doesn’t Offend Me: Chronic Illness, Friendship, and Looking Fine When You’re Not

Invisible illness can make ordinary social moments surprisingly complicated. A simple comment, a changed friendship, or a curious question can turn into an emotional negotiation when your body carries more than people can see. This episode explores chronic illness, invisible symptoms, privacy, boundaries, friendship, dignity, and the pressure to explain yourself. It’s about living in a body that doesn’t always advertise what it’s doing, while still wanting to be treated as a whole person, not a ...
17
May 8, 2026

The Strange Math of Chronic Illness: What Sarcoidosis Taught Me About Expectations

People sometimes ask how anyone living with sarcoidosis can stay positive day after day. The answer isn’t motivation, inspiration, or some magical personality trait. It’s something quieter… something most people miss entirely. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Research
16
May 5, 2026

The Smoking Backpack: Chronic Illness in Public

A doctor’s waiting room is usually boring. Mine briefly turned into a low-budget suspense film because my portable oxygen backpack looked like it was smoking. Living with sarcoidosis and chronic illness means getting used to equipment, routines, and symptoms that feel normal to you but deeply suspicious to everyone else. What started as an ordinary appointment became one of those strange public moments where illness stops being private and starts becoming a spectacle. It was awkward, absurd, and...
15
May 2, 2026

MiniCast: When the Wild Speaks: The Night a Fox and a Crow Changed Everything

On a quiet sunset drive, I stumbled into a raw moment between a fox and a crow—two wild creatures locked in instinct and mystery. What began as an ordinary evening turned into a reflection on survival, intuition, and the strange ways nature mirrors our own chronic-illness battles. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Res...
14
May 1, 2026

Getting an AICD: What the Surgery Felt Like From the Hospital Bed

Getting an AICD implanted is not just a procedure. It is the moment heart failure stops sounding like a diagnosis on paper and starts feeling real in your body. In this episode, I share what it was actually like to hear I needed an implantable defibrillator, wait in fear, go under the operating lights, feel the strange sensations no brochure mentions, and wake up with emergency hardware in my chest. This is not the polished hospital version. It is the patient version, the human version, for anyo...
13
April 28, 2026

The Day the Hospital Treated Me Like a Human Being

Hospital visits can start to feel like rehearsed disappointment when you live with sarcoidosis, heart failure, and the long, exhausting reality of chronic illness. I know that feeling well. So when I went to Westchester Medical Center for a right heart catheterization and was met with kindness, answers, eye contact, and actual respect, it caught me completely off guard. In this episode, I talk about why simple human decency can change the emotional weight of a procedure, why bad attitudes linger...
12
April 25, 2026

MiniCast: Stop Saying You’re Allergic to Bees (When You’re Really Just Terrified of Nature)

Ever wonder why everyone suddenly claims they’re “allergic to bees”? In this cheeky yet heartfelt take from a chef living with chronic illness, I explore what our bee phobia really says about fear, faith, and city folks who panic at pollen. Spoiler: the bees aren’t the problem. This podcast is narrated using an AI voice. The words, reflections, and lived experience are my own. Contact A Body Rebels More info about Sarcoidosis and to donate toward research: The Foundation For Sarcoidosis Resear...