Lives Interrupted: the Hidden Costs of Having a Neglected Illness

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Lives Interrupted seeks to illuminate the economic and other costs of having diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), post-treatment Lyme disease, and long COVID. These diseases affect millions, typically receive little research funding, and, as a consequence have few good treatments available. Find out more about Lives Interrupted here.

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My Journey and ME – See Don's story here

Entire Adulthood taken from me – See Megan's story here

My Labyrinthine Journey with a Covid Coda – See Rondo 's story here

Knocked Out Of The Job Of a Lifetime – See Bob Graybosch's story here

Structural Failure – See Allyn Archer's story here

Full recovery in 2020 – See Ani W's story here

My non-miraculous, extremely slow, non-recovered, successful life, so far – See JudyH's story here

My cost of living crisis – See Georgie Coghlan's story here

Beyond the Birdcage: Inconvenient Truths About Myalgic Encephalomyelitis – See Jennifer McBryde's story here

How Swine Flu Changed My Life Forever – See Corey's story here

A career just starting cut short. – See Ani's story here

Adverse Reaction to a Flu Vaccination – See Azalea's story here

Post vaccination – See Kitty's story here

Nursing Myself – See Alison Wiltbank's story here

Lost in Time – See Bryan's story here

Searching for answers/Learning acceptance – See Leslie Fellows's story here

M.E STOPPED MY LIFE – See Mary's story here

Everything is Gone – See Lavenderblue 's story here

A Broken Journey – See T-Rev 's story here

Debilitated – See MD's story here

30 of 33 years gone – See Duckcove's story here

Patte’s Lyme Journey – See Patte Wood's story here

Living life on a 2 inch bungee cord – See Diane's story here

I’m still standing! (ack to Elton John) – See Drdragonmama's story here

Still Fighting… – See Steph's story here

Post Covid evolved into Post Viral Syndrome and Fibromyalgia – See Henchman D's story here

Bowed but not broken – See Ann's story here

Wobbly legs and ME – See Anna Marie's story here

Not the life I expected – See Stéphanie's story here

Nobody is Listening – See Dea's story here

Some recovery and a lot of determination – See Ishtar's story here

This disease has taken 32 yrs. of my life – See Brie's story here

Never Better – See LauraB's story here

My adult life should have been just beginning. Instead it was forever stolen from me. – See Jo-Anne's story here

Career, family, fortune, friendships, reputation wrecked at 34y – See Remembrance's story here

Fibromyalgia For 2/3 of My Life – See Emily's story here

Losing a life of science. – See Christyne Bliton's story here

A full and promising life redefined by chronic illness – See Drew's story here

CFIDS & My Disability – See Dave's story here

Physical therapist assistant with Non-rehabable illness – See Anna's story here

Loooong Covid – See Elizabeth's story here

From caregiver to patient – See Lynn R's story here

Once on track to becoming CEO – See Amy S.'s story here

Cancer and ME – See Suzie B's story here

Lyme+ to ME – See Mima 's story here

A long slog – See Cparks's story here

Long ago in a distant place… – See Cort's story here

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All Stories

Never Better

Name: LauraB	Years Ill: 6
Location: Rock Stream, United States
Former Occupation: RN
Current Occupation: RN
Former Activity Level (0-100): 90	Current Activity Level (0-100): 40

Story: On the way home from work, I saw a cat hit by a car on a busy roadway. I pulled over, ran out li…

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My adult life should have been just beginning. Instead it was forever stolen from me.

Name: Jo-Anne	Years Ill: 28
Location: Maidstone, England, UK
Former Occupation: Registered General Nurse
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 40
Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked: £199,564

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Career, family, fortune, friendships, reputation wrecked at 34y

Name: Remembrance	Years Ill: 33
Location: Manchester, England, UK
Former Occupation: Research Scientist
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 20

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Fibromyalgia For 2/3 of My Life

Name: Emily	Years Ill: 21
Location: Willingboro, United States
Former Occupation: None (was 15)
Current Occupation: Medical writer
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 60
Story: I was always sick as a child with different kinds of infections (respiratory infections started a…

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Losing a life of science.

Name: Christyne Bliton	Years Ill: 17
Location: East Lansing, United States
Former Occupation: Bioengineer
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 20
Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked: $1,631,171
Story: I was managing a national bioinformatics project at University of Michigan when I got sick with a…

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A full and promising life redefined by chronic illness

Name: Drew	Years Ill: 5
Location: Los Angeles, United States
Former Occupation: team director at early stage tech startup
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 40
Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked: $161,181
Story: I was working to get some diagnosed digestive issues under control (SIBO- symptoms were nausea, c…

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CFIDS & My Disability

Name: Dave	Years Ill: 25
Location: Milan, United States
Former Occupation: Teacher
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 20
Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked: $660,040
Story: By the way, currently, I am 1/2 the man I used to be -- 260lbs when I got sick, and now down to 1…

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Physical therapist assistant with Non-rehabable illness

Name: Anna	Years Ill: 6
Location: Saint Paul, United States
Former Occupation: Physical Therapist Assistant
Former Activity Level (0-100): 100	Current Activity Level (0-100): 20
Total Projected Economic Losses For Years Not Worked: $122,116
Story: I became ill right as I graduated from a Physical Therapy Assistant program (2017). I remember th…