The Invisible Illness Club | Chronic Illness, Auto Immune

The results say everything looks normal. You still feel exhausted, foggy, or unlike yourself. What do you do with the distance between those two things? In this IIC conversation, April talks with healthcare attorney and author Joy Stephenson-Laws about asking questions when lab results have not explained how you feel. Joy shares how her work and her mother’s experiences with medical care shaped her interest in patient advocacy and her book, Your Labs Are Fine. You’re Not. They discuss understanding what was actually tested, approaching supplements with care, checking the information in your medical chart, and preparing for appointments when energy and concentration are limited. Joy also introduces her Feel, Pause, Act framework, a way to acknowledge a feeling, make room to consider it, and choose a response that fits your capacity. There is room here for frustration and unanswered questions. This conversation is an invitation to participate in your care without expecting yourself to become your own doctor. It shares Joy’s perspective and experiences, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. In This Episode What repeated reassurance can feel like when you still feel unwell Asking what your lab work measured and what questions remain Why a conversation about mineral deficiencies should not become a shopping list of supplements Preparing questions and practical support around your available energy Using Feel, Pause, Act without expecting a perfect response every time Reviewing medical notes and seeking care when something feels different or concerning Guest Info Joy Stephenson-Laws, JD, is a healthcare attorney, author, and founder of Proactive Health Labs. Her work focuses on helping people understand health information and take a more active role in conversations about their care. Visit Proactive Health Labs Resources Your Labs Are Fine. You’re Not. and other books from Proactive Health Labs Proactive Health Labs learning resources, Joy’s educational website discussed in the conversation For additional context, these resources were checked during preparation and are not presented as resources named in the interview: Understanding lab results, MedlinePlus Dietary supplements: what you need to know, NIH Office of Dietary Supplements Related Episodes Ep. 58: The Invisible Full-Time Job of Chronic Illness, for the work of appointments, decisions, and keeping track of your care. Ep. 68: Chronic Illness and the Loneliness of Being Misunderstood, for the emotional weight of trying to explain what someone else cannot see. Connect with IIC Links & Resources Join The Unseen Sisterhood https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/newsletter Listen to the podcast https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/podcasts Visit the website https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the_invisibleillnessclub Stay connected Subscribe for honest conversations about chronic illness, faith, emotional exhaustion, boundaries, rest, and building a meaningful life inside limitation. Join The Unseen Sisterhood: https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com

You pray for healing and wake up hurting again. You pray for answers, and another test leaves you with more questions. What does worship look like in that kind of waiting? In this episode of The Invisible Illness Club, April reflects on a valley of worship: turning toward God in the middle of pain, disappointment, exhaustion, and prayers that still feel unanswered. Through Habakkuk’s honest questions and the words “though” and “yet,” this conversation explores faith that makes room for what is actually happening. You can bring God your anger, your uncertainty, and the grief of a life that looks different than you expected. You don’t have to arrive with a polished prayer. We talk about: What worship can look like when you don’t feel like singing. The pressure to get your emotions together before coming to God. Habakkuk’s “How long?” and the space Scripture makes for honest questions. Holding pain and trust together without erasing either one. The simple prayer, “God, I’m still here.” If you’re somewhere between “How long?” and “Yet,” there is room for you in this conversation. Scripture explored: Habakkuk 1:2 and 3:17–19. A question to carry with you: What would you tell God today if you didn’t feel pressure to make it sound better? Follow The Invisible Illness Club in your listening app for more honest conversations about faith and chronic illness. If this episode gives words to something you’ve been carrying, you’re welcome to share it with someone who might need that language too. Links & Resources Join The Unseen Sisterhood https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/newsletter Listen to the podcast https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/podcasts Visit the website https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the\_invisibleillnessclubStay connected Subscribe for honest conversations about chronic illness, faith, emotional exhaustion, boundaries, rest, and building a meaningful life inside limitation. Join The Unseen Sisterhood: https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.comCredits Hosted by April Aramanda The Invisible Illness Club Podcast Music via AudioJungle This podcast is for encouragement and shared experience, not medical advice. Please talk with your doctor or care team about your own health decisions.

What does it mean to enjoy your life when illness still shapes it? For Lauren Watt, that question includes eight years spent largely in bed, the loss of expected teenage milestones, and the work of building an adult life with ongoing health limitations. Lauren became ill at fourteen. While her peers were learning to drive and graduating, her days were often shaped by pain, fatigue, sensory sensitivity, and the effort of getting through ordinary tasks. Even when her body began to improve, the emotional work was still unfolding. In this episode of The Invisible Illness Club, April and Lauren talk about what it means to make room for a life that is still unfinished. They discuss the vulnerability of needing other people, the fear that being seen on a better day might cost you support, and the grief of reaching milestones on a different timeline. Faith is part of that conversation, including the parts that are difficult to say out loud. Lauren describes finding space for lament, wrestling with prayers that seemed unanswered, and learning that she could bring her own needs to God. They explore the tension between hoping for healing and receiving the life available today. There are also ordinary, specific joys: crochet, art, time outdoors, a bowl of ice cream with family, and a handmade gift that made a child happy. Lauren describes learning to value those moments without needing to justify each one as useful or productive. Lauren also shares her personal experience with trauma work and brain retraining. This episode does not establish the cause of anyone else’s symptoms or offer a treatment plan. Her improvement is not a standard another listener has to meet. If you are grieving the life you expected, wondering how to live with ongoing uncertainty, or trying to notice something good without denying what hurts, this conversation makes room for those questions. In this episode What eight years largely bedridden looked like in daily life Growing up with illness and grieving missed milestones Depending on others when your symptoms are mostly invisible Feeling more experienced in some ways and behind in others Lauren’s experience of trauma work during her recovery Relearning enjoyment and receiving ordinary good things Prayer, lament, and the pressure to sound grateful Accommodations, work, and a slower pace of life Holding a recovery story without turning it into a measure of someone else’s faith About Lauren Lauren Watt is a writer, creative, entrepreneur, and speaker who became chronically ill at fourteen and spent eight years largely bedridden. She now works as a marketing assistant and continues to navigate health limitations. Through Lauren’s Pen, she explores the intersection of faith, trauma, and chronic illness. Connect with Lauren Lauren’s Pen on Substack Lauren’s website Lauren on Instagram Lauren on Facebook Mentioned in the conversation Good News About Self-Care, by Benjamin D. Espinoza Romans 12, NIV Psalm 77, NIV Habakkuk 3:17 to 19, NIV Dynamic Neural Retraining System Restore, with Sarah Jackson The programs above are included because Lauren discusses them in her story. Listing them is not a medical recommendation or a guarantee of results. Content note: This conversation includes severe illness, medical trauma, grief, the death of a friend, and difficult questions about faith and healing. Listen at the pace that feels manageable for you. Links & Resources Join The Unseen Sisterhood https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/newsletter Listen to the podcast https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/podcasts Visit the website https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the\_invisibleillnessclubStay connected Subscribe for honest conversations about chronic illness, faith, emotional exhaustion, boundaries, rest, and building a meaningful life inside limitation. Join The Unseen Sisterhood: https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.comCredits Hosted by April Aramanda The Invisible Illness Club Podcast Music via AudioJungle This podcast is for encouragement and shared experience, not medical advice. Please talk with your doctor or care team about your own health decisions.

A familiar ache. A lower energy day. A call from the doctor's office. A test result in the patient portal. Sometimes one small moment is enough to send the mind racing toward the next flare, the next cancellation, or the next piece of news that could rearrange life again. The fear is not only about what is happening now. It carries the memory of what your body and heart have already survived. In this episode of The Invisible Illness Club, April names the fear that often remains beneath chronic illness life, even during a good stretch. She talks about symptom vigilance, the pressure to use energy wisely, the strange suspension of waiting for medical answers, and the cost of emotionally living through tomorrow before it arrives. April also makes room for a faith that tells the truth. Trusting God does not mean never feeling afraid. Prayer does not require a calm body or a tidy ending. Sometimes faith sounds like, “God, I'm scared. Please stay with me in the waiting.” You will hear reflections on: Why a small symptom can bring back the memory of an earlier crisis How good days can hold joy, gratitude, pressure, and fear at the same time The invisible work of living in the “maybe” of an unpredictable body The difference between useful preparation and costly emotional bracing Why fear is not proof that you are foolish or faithless How to ask what you actually know and need in this moment What it can mean to let fear be present without giving it every decision How honest prayer can hold fear, grief, uncertainty, and trust together The future may remain uncertain, but you do not have to live every possible tomorrow today. The good moments do not have to promise permanence before you are allowed to receive them. Follow The Invisible Illness Club in your podcast app so new episodes are waiting for you. Content note This episode discusses medical uncertainty, flare anxiety, test results, and waiting for calls from a doctor's office. Please listen when you have the capacity for those subjects. Links & Resources Join The Unseen Sisterhood https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/newsletter Listen to the podcast https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com/podcasts Visit the website https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com Instagram https://www.instagram.com/the\_invisibleillnessclub Stay connected Subscribe for honest conversations about chronic illness, faith, emotional exhaustion, boundaries, rest, and building a meaningful life inside limitation. Join The Unseen Sisterhood: https://www.theinvisibleillnessclub.com Credits Hosted by April Aramanda The Invisible Illness Club Podcast Music via AudioJungle This podcast is for encouragement and shared experience, not medical advice. Please talk with your doctor or care team about your own health decisions.

Trigger Warning: This episode includes conversations about cancer, chronic and terminal illness, death, anticipatory grief, and talking with children about a loved one’s health. Children notice the canceled plans, appointments, changes in energy, and uncertainty that enter family life when someone they love is ill. When adults do not explain what is happening, children often create explanations of their own. In this episode, April talks with author, illustrator, cancer survivor, and Mighty + Bright founder Sara Olsher about how to speak honestly with children about chronic and terminal illness. Sara shares what her own daughter understood about her limited energy, why children need age appropriate explanations of what is happening in the body, and how visual tools can make unpredictable days feel more manageable. They also talk about letting children be disappointed when illness changes the plans, separating a child’s feelings from blame, and reminding children that they are not responsible for protecting or emotionally caring for the adults in their lives. When there is no reassuring answer, honesty still matters. Sometimes the most trustworthy thing an adult can say is, “I don’t know, but I will keep talking with you about it.” Sara is the coauthor, with child life specialist Jenny Rogers, of What Happens When Someone I Love Doesn’t Feel Good, a book designed to help families begin these difficult conversations with clarity and compassion. Show notes How do we tell children the truth when an illness may not go away? Children can sense when something has changed in their family. They notice an adult’s stress, limited energy, medical appointments, and plans that suddenly need to change. Without an explanation they can understand, they may decide the change is their fault or feel that the adults around them are hiding something too frightening to name. Sara Olsher knows this both personally and professionally. After navigating cancer treatment as a single mother, she began creating books and visual tools to help children understand difficult experiences in their families. In this conversation, Sara explains why age appropriate honesty can feel safer than silence and why children often need to hear the same reassuring truths more than once. April and Sara discuss practical ways to prepare children for unpredictable energy, including creating a Plan A and Plan B before a difficult day arrives. They also make room for a harder truth: children are allowed to feel angry, sad, or disappointed when illness changes their lives. Their feelings are not an accusation, and they should not be asked to protect an adult from them. This episode does not offer a perfect answer for every uncertain outcome. It offers something more useful: a way to keep the conversation open, tell the truth without overwhelming a child, and remind them that the adults are still responsible for the adult feelings. In this episode Why Sara and Jenny Rogers saw a gap in resources about chronic and terminal illness How Sara explained limited energy to her daughter Why science and age appropriate language can make illness less frightening How children may blame themselves for tension adults leave unexplained Why visual schedules and Plan A or Plan B options help with unpredictability How to let a child express disappointment without hearing it as blame Why children need to know they are not responsible for an adult’s emotions How to offer honest presence when you cannot promise recovery Why difficult conversations do not have to be perfect or completed all at once What teachers, relatives, and other trusted adults should understand Resources mentioned Sara Olsher’s website: https://www.saraolsher.com/ Mighty + Bright: https://mightyandbright.com/?srsltid=AfmBOooyuj7GyJZQpV_A8ewVcv33P5GIJWynw3SKz72mDXfEoT8_jnaG What Happens When Someone I Love Doesn’t Feel Good: https://www.saraolsher.com/collections/books-by-sara-olsher/products/book-what-happens-when-someone-i-love-doesnt-feel-good?variant=43100712927277 Parent guides for download: https://www.saraolsher.com/collections/digital-downloads About Sara Olsher Sara Olsher is an author, illustrator, speaker, cancer survivor, and the founder of Mighty + Bright. Her books and visual tools help children understand difficult experiences in their families, including cancer, chronic illness, grief, and changing family circumstances. She coauthored What Happens When Someone I Love Doesn’t Feel Good with child life specialist Jenny Rogers.