Chronic Love Club

It was a strange time in my life. I felt like it was Groundhog Day. Everyday I would wake up, deal with strange symptoms, and get explosively frustrated about why this was happening and why doctors couldn't tell me what was happening. My illness started out with a bunch of odd neurological symptoms. And through a follower on Instagram, I was introduced to Derek, who had undergone 10 years of searching for answers for strange neurological issues before getting answers. I can never thank the person who introduced us enough times.

We got talking and I quickly realized two things 1: He was so full of love. 2: He was pretty much as wise as Gandhi. As we went through similar symptoms, we spoke on the phone everytime I needed a moral boost or advice for an upcoming appointment. He was exactly what I needed to get through this torturous time in my life, and through the power of the universe, we met.

We both ended up being diagnosed with very rare neurological diseases which are surprisingly similar symptom-wise. And we would think about how lucky it was that by chance we were introduced.

So Derek suggested we start some sort of inspirational project for the chronic illness community. I already had a page on Instagram where I would post inspirational quotes with the handle @chronicloveclub, and thus Chronic Love Club began. Every day we share a motivational or relatable quote, and a new story from someone fighting a health battle of any kind. We have the privilege of sharing stories from real life heroes, and I want myself never to take that for granted that these people are trusting us with their stories of struggle and triumph. And some of the stories we read... are unbelievable.

We started doing this for both us, and others. We want to raise awareness, and let others share their stories with the world. But as two people with debilitating chronic illnesses, unable to work or go to school, we both felt a sense that we were missing a purpose. And as much as Chronic Love Club is helping others, it is helping us. We have found a way to fill up our time that is meaningful to us in a way words can't describe.

We really have only just begun our journey with Chronic Love Club, but we both feel like it's home. We can't wait to see what unfolds in the future, and for now, we're just taking things one day at a time!