Midwest Mimi

  • The Doctors Who Didn’t Stop Looking

    For years, doctors treated my symptoms without seeing the bigger picture. Then one neurologist asked why nobody was connecting the dots. His question changed my medical care and taught me what truly matters in a doctor: not having every answer, but caring enough to keep looking.

  • I Can’t Wait Until I’m Better to Start Living

    After nearly dying from respiratory failure, I knew I wanted more than simply surviving. Years later, my chronic illnesses are better managed, but I’m not cured. I’ve learned that a meaningful life doesn’t have to wait for perfect health. Sometimes living means creating art, raising my children, and finding joy in the ordinary moments my…

  • When My Body Cancels the Plans

    A flare day is more than just feeling worse. It is when the systems I already use to manage chronic illness stop being enough. This is what that looks like inside a real family, and what I wish more people understood about loving someone whose body does not always cooperate.

  • Not Cosmetic

    A personal essay about illness, poverty, motherhood, Medicaid, medical dismissal, and what happens when visible survival gets mistaken for failure.

  • The Hidden Cost of Simple Things

    A fall in the shower took only a few seconds, but the recovery may take days. This is the hidden cost of chronic illness: simple things are not always simple, and a slower pace does not mean a smaller dream.

  • 11 Things That Help When My Body Is Done

    Some days my body is just done. Not one thing. Not just pain. All of it. These are the small, real things that actually help me get through.

  • I Haven’t Had a Good Day in a While

    I haven’t had a good day in a while. Not because I stopped trying, but because my body hasn’t caught up. This is what it looks like to keep showing up when even small things hurt.

  • I Am Not Lazy. I Am Regulating.

    From the outside, my life probably looks lazy. But what looks like laziness is actually regulation. Rest, pacing, and adaptation are not failures. They are how I survive chronic illness and continue showing up for my family and myself.

  • The Day I Stopped Explaining Myself

    After nearly dying from respiratory failure, I stopped explaining myself. Living with chronic illness taught me that understanding is not something you can force, and survival does not require justification. This is the story of choosing boundaries, rest, and presence over being understood.

  • What Chronic Illness Actually Costs Families (Not Just the Person Who Is Sick)

    Chronic illness does not just cost pain. It costs childhood ease, canceled plans, and quiet adaptations no one sees. When a parent becomes ill, families adjust in ways that are loving and necessary, but not without impact. This is a reflection on the invisible ripple effects and the children who step up long before they…

  • Plan B Still Counts: Regulating a Neurodivergent Nervous System in Motherhood

    Some days, nothing flows. The house is loud, plans stall, and sensory overload starts stacking until your body waves red flags. This is a reflection on choosing Plan B, protecting a neurodivergent nervous system, and why rest and reset days are not failure but wisdom learned the hard way.

  • The Kind of Strength That Holds a Family Together

    Disabled motherhood builds a kind of strength people rarely talk about. From crisis moments to chronic illness days, this is what it looks like to love a family fiercely while carrying more than most people will ever know.

  • The Hidden Cost of Being Strong

    Behind the calm I show the world is a body fighting to regulate itself. This is the hidden cost of strength for those of us living with disability and sensory overwhelm.

  • The World Looks Purple To Me

    A journey from innocence, to hustling for survival, to rebuilding life after chronic illness. Motherhood, queerness, and the purple lens that reveals what is worth fighting for.

  • 10 Chronic Illness Hacks That Truly Make Life Easier

    Living with chronic illness means that everyday life takes more energy, planning, and creativity than most people realize. Over the last ten years, I’ve had to learn how to adapt and find little ways to make things easier, not just for me, but for my whole family. These aren’t “perfect life hacks” from the internet.…