QA: Laurie Edwards

Laurie Edwards skillfully combines her writing talents and her lifelong (she is 27) experience with chronic illness in both her blog, A Chronic Dose, and in her first book, Life Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties (see the review, LJ 5/1/08). Her illumination of the psychological experience of illness, not to mention her encouragement and practical advice, will strike a chord with the many Americans in her age group who struggle with conditions like Crohn's disease, asthma, and multiple sclerosis. LJ caught up with Edwards on the phone.

So many illness memoirs are published these days. Were you intimidated to add to the genre?

I've done a lot of reading of the literature, and I definitely think that I have something new to add. There really aren't that many books addressing the particular challenges of chronic illness or my particular age group.

What are your thoughts about "writing as therapy"?

I think that writing is an extremely valuable and expressive tool; the value in writing about illness or medical illness is that you can contribute to a larger community. Whatever you write, someone else can see and hopefully learn from and vice versa.

Growing up as a sick kid, I couldn't go out and play that much, so in that sense writing was the thing I turned to, to give me an identity. Now that I am an adult and a writer taking on the patient experience, writing validates a lot of things.

Has writing this book made you a "better" patient?

I think it has made me more understanding of what has gone on with my medical history and my misdiagnoses. Now I am able to look at my health intellectually rather than just emotionally and understand that at the end of the day physicians do their best to help me.

In terms of what I have heard from other patients, I think it has also made me more aware. Anytime you learn about what other people are going through, you realize that what you are experiencing is relative. I have been incredibly lucky to find these patients and to learn their stories—they are incredibly insightful and wise.

In blogging about chronic illness, do you find it hard to strike an appropriate tone?

One thing I try to do in my blogging and in the book is show the universality of the chronic illness experience. It is definitely challenging, but overall the themes of identity and loss and survival and acceptance are a much bigger common denominator than the differences.

Medical blogging in general has been great for me. It has connected me with a core audience who are really interested in what I am doing and can relate to it. By the same token, it has exposed me to a lot of other great authors, doctors, and patients.

Your book talks about the importance of having an identity other than illness. Is that something you still struggle with? Do you have suggestions for handling it?

The whole idea of identity—that is the root of the book. It is certainly something I still struggle with. By the nature of chronic illness, things are always going to change. Just when you think you've got that balance, be prepared because something is going to change with your health status.

That said, I feel that I have reached a better balance, and I think that having the right diagnosis has been instrumental. Also, finding an outlet and finding a career that seems to meet my health needs as well as my professional ambitions have made it a little bit easier for me.

In terms of tips, I guess I would say just believe every day that balance is possible; illness is one part of the equation, but it doesn't have to define you if you don't let it. You have to be willing to adapt goals and plans and aspirations in light of health status, but adaptation is possible and necessary.

Are there lessons to be learned from dealing with chronic illness?

Sure. Suffering allows you to understand others; it gives you empathy. You recognize and appreciate that so many things are possible even if you don't have the best health.

Illness is a litmus test; it challenges you and everyone around you. Finding the relationships that survive is incredibly important.