What's the deal?

This is (I hope) going to be a blog about traveling with chronic illness (and the pain that comes with it). All sorts of travel - a quick jaunt to the next town or state, trekking through a country where you don't speak the language, camping in the Arctic for weeks at a time. Situations that are challenging even when your own body doesn't occasionally like to attack itself and make life suck. When you aren't taking heavy-duty meds.

Why listen to me? Good question.

I love to travel. Mostly, what people seem to consider 'Adventure Travel'. I've spent time in the high arctic (six summer trips, so far), in Africa (Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa), in Europe, Vanuatu, Australia - I like to wander this big beautiful planet of ours. I'm writing this in a hostel in the Philippines (Manila) on spotty-at-best internet, halfway through a trip that's part work, part vacation.

I've also got a stack of illnesses that make this sort of travel challenging. Migraines since childhood, mild asthma, various mental health issues... and autoimmune illness. Exactly which autoimmune illness is a great question that depends when I ask the doctor and what mood he's in - tests say probably some version of Scleroderma. That last one has been an issue for the last decade or so.

I've learned a lot about how to do this. From the little things (how to get insurance to cover more than 30 days of meds) to the bigger ones (how to get travel immunizations while on immune suppression or what to do if you can't). I've learned how to pace my travels, how to make it possible to keep doing this.

My doctors are mostly supportive of my travels and adventures, though all of them say I should write about it - because they don't see others doing these things. My friends and spoonie communities agree. So... here I am, trying to do that.

I suspect that there are also other folks out there adventuring with chronic illness - I'd like to start that conversation, share advice with others.