Jenna Green talks multiple sclerosis and degenerative disc disease and how making meaning from chronic illness is not the same as believing that it happened for a reason.
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Transcript
Hi, I’m Brianne Benness and this is No End In Sight, a podcast about life with chronic illness.
Before we get started, I’m going to do the thing where I plug my own work. Last weekend I wrote an open letter to problem patients and published it on Medium. I honestly sobbed while I was writing this letter, and it’s a mashup of my own experiences and everything I’ve learned while doing these interviews. Before I started this podcast, I kind of thought that I would mostly be learning about all of the different unusual cures and coping mechanisms that people had discovered for themselves, but that’s not really what I found at all.
Instead, I’ve learned about some really predictable patterns in what it feels like to become sick and I tried to acknowledge a lot of them in this letter. You can find a link in the episode notes for this show on NoEndInSight.co, or you can just google Brianne Benness Medium and it will be the most recent post. It’s called Dear Problem Patients: An open letter to anyone who’s ever felt dismissed by their doctor.
Also, here’s a quick reminder that I recently started a patreon campaign, so if you’ve been enjoying this show and you have a couple bucks to spare, I’d be so so grateful if you’d sign up as a patron at patreon.com/noendinsight.
Today I’m talking to Jenna Green about degenerative disc disease and multiple sclerosis and how making meaning from chronic illness is not the same as believing that it happened for a reason.
Before we start, here’s my disclaimer:
This podcast is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Make sure you talk to your practitioner about any questions or symptoms.
[interview transcript coming soon]
Thank you for listening to episode 49 of No End In Sight!
You can find Jenna on instagram at @TheJennaGreen and you can find me on instagram and twitter @bennessb. And of course you can find this show on instagram @no.end.in.sight.pod. As I keep saying, I’ve been posting each episode as a story but haven’t posted to the main feed in a while because I’m so behind on transcripts – as you know. But of course, the whole reason that I’ve started a patreon account is to help with those transcripts, so I’ll go ahead and plug that again: it’s patreon.com/noendinsight.
Next week is my 50th episode, which feels huge. I’m actually going to use this occasion to do some followup about my own health story because I know so much more than I did a year ago even though I’m not sure anything has changed. So make sure you subscribe in your podcast app to find out when new episodes are available. And if you’ve been enjoying this show, I would be so grateful if you’d leave a review on Apple Podcasts so that new listeners know what to expect.
I’m also about to start another round of interviews for the podcast, so if you’ve been thinking about sharing your story then now’s the time! Just head to noendinsight.co and click Share Your Story. It still says I’m on hiatus, which is a lie, but if you fill out the interest form then I’ll send you an email with booking details. On this show I’ve talked to a lot of white cis women in their 20s and 30s, so I’d particularly love to hear from people with other perspectives.
As usual, don’t forget that I have a small Facebook Group called Chronic Hustlers for people living with chronic conditions who are self employed. It’s quiet but growing, and you’ll even find a few podcast guests in the group.
And finally:
This podcast is supported by my cross stitch company, Digital Artisanal. When I’m up for it, I make simple modern patterns that you’ll actually want to hang in your home. I’ve got some fun fall patterns in the shop, and dozens of very simple icons that you can customize to your heart’s delight. I’d love it if you checked us out at digitalartisanal.com.