My Several Worlds - Chronic Pain and Disability Awareness

07/28/2025

"If you choose only to learn from those who look and live like you, you won't learn much."

Credit: Misa On Wheels

07/28/2025

March 2023 - July 2025

This is the full story on Taiwan Disability Inclusion! We are a voice for Taiwan's immigrant disabled population and we are rolling along here in Taiwan. The Taiwan government came through for us in October 2023, months after starting our petition for disability inclusion in March 2023. Immigrants of Taiwan can now apply for disability certificates!

However we are now trying to bring things into alignment with what locals receive. Most of us have not been able to receive the benefits we need or access the same things that Taiwanese citizens get because we don't have household registration numbers.

The battle for in continues. I've done my best to record each step along the way.
🔗 https://www.myseveralworlds.com/2023/04/28/taiwan-disability-inclusion-petition-time-for-change/

Tw
- Mar 2023-Aug 2024

We are a voice for Taiwan's immigrant disabled population. Immigrants can apply for disability certificates, but most of us have not received the same benefits that Taiwanese citizens have.
🔗 Irhttps://www.myseveralworlds.com/2023/04/28/taiwan-disability-inclusion-petition-time-for-change/

07/28/2025

15 signs my Is getting bad again

*Irritable
*Unable to focus
*Racing thoughts & mood changes
*Endless scrolling
*Extreme anxiety
*Suicidal thinking
*Feeling not good enough or a burden
*Easy to anger
*Feeling numb
*Zoning out
*Loss of appetite
*Intrusive thoughts
*Physical tension in the body and headaches
*Inability to cope with daily problems or stress
*Crying all the time
*Unable to get out of bed
*Unable to sleep
*Stop cleaning up after yourself
*Never-ending to-do list

What's a sign for you that your mental health is getting bad again?

07/27/2025

There is a real person behind this account. I post most of my personal stuff on my personal page at Carrie Kellenberger.

My Several Worlds highlights support and awareness through MySeveralWorlds.com and through my support groups. I use it to showcase my work in advocacy in the disabled and chronically ill communities and to highlight other disabled voices.

My name is Carrie and I'm been living with complex chronic illness and mostly med resistant/very difficult to treat inflammatory arthritis since 2009. I live with lots of other problems as a result of my autoimmune diseases. I'm a leader in communicating about life with axSpA, fibromyalgia, MECFS, chronic illness, and disability.

Welcome to MySeveralWorlds.com!

07/27/2025

"People keep telling me that there are lots of jobs that disabled people can do. There aren't lots of vacancies, though.
There aren't lots of employers willing to employ disabled people. There aren't lots of vacancies and employers that fit the specific needs of disabled people who have already been judged unfit to work."

Credit:

07/27/2025

Travel Vault Tales: Borneo
Rainy Season in , Flash Floods, and Why You Should Always Drive A Pickup!

"In Malaysian Borneo, it rains pretty much every afternoon and evening during the winter. Renting a car in is an easy and cheap thing to do. Within minutes of arriving, John secured a four-door Myvi that had room to accommodate his height. It was a steal compared to the pick-up trucks on the roads of Sabah. Little did we know we would regret our decision to rent a Myvi when we got caught by a flash flood! (And I got it all on video!)

My gaze rose to the wall of people in front of us arguing over whether to cross the water. Knowing my husband, I started preparing for the worst. Of course, John announces we’re going through it. He drives into the waist high water. Immediately, the road is swallowed up and I'm looking at water a few inches below the window. “Look for the yellow line,” John says. The line lets us know we’re still on the road... AGHHHH
🔗
Continue reading:
https://www.myseveralworlds.com/2011/03/31/rainy-season-in-borneo-flash-floods-and-why-you-should-always-drive-a-pickup/

07/26/2025

I live with it and it has been an awful aftermath to my clot crisis and APS diagnosis.

I recommend all these tips regularly:
🧦 wear compression
🦵 elevate your legs
🚶‍♀️ move as much as you can when you can!

In light of President Donald Trump’s recent diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency (CVI), many are wondering if it could be related to blood clots or post-thrombotic syndrome.

Dr. Suman Wasan of UNC Chapel Hill, who served as the expert for our July PEP Talk on compression, explains that CVI happens when the valves in the leg veins weaken, causing blood to pool and ankles to swell, which is often noticeable at the sock line.

While it’s commonly due to aging, obesity, or prolonged standing, it can also result from past blood clots that damage the valves and scar the veins. This is known as post thrombotic syndrome (PTS), the more specific name for CVI in people with a history of blood clots.

To manage CVI:

✔️ Elevate your legs
✔️ Move often
✔️ Wear compression socks

If you’ve experienced CVI, how did you manage it? Tell us in the comments.

07/26/2025

15% Off All Tees! Wear your pride and feel empowered.

Your strength isn’t measured by pain-free days — it’s in how you keep showing up. Whether you’re pacing yourself, using mobility aids, or crushing goals from bed, your journey with autoimmune disease is valid, powerful, and worth celebrating.

That’s why I created a line of My Several Worlds t-shirts that are designed with my chronically ill and disabled community in mind:

Visit my RB shop, add three tees to your cart and nab 15% off all three. Comfort, visibility, and empowerment should be accessible.

Wear your story and be as always!

👇 Shop in comments

07/26/2025

"It takes a lot, and I mean A LOT to meet with people or leave my home. I'm deliberate in what I choose to do and I know I will pay for it. A phone call or lunch out might be easy for you. For the chronically ill, it can be a marathon."
Credit: Carrie Kellenberger


My friend
"What's it's like to be disabled
Imagine having to carefully plan every trip outside the house. You make sure it isn't too long that it makes you sick, but long enough that it's still worth it. You work out timings to make sure you leave at your most 'energised'. You save up meds to take to help get you through. You put in rest periods before and after to recover. All so you can go out and be a part of the 'normal' world just for a little bit."

Chronically yours,
Carrie

07/26/2025

The Banyans Whispering To Me: Ta Prohm

"Perhaps it’s the time of day that lend the ruins hidden deep in this jungle a sense of transcendence. It might be the stillness of the jungle or the distant humming of insects. It’s so quiet, I can practically hear the vegetation growing around me.

I lay my hands on a towering gentle giant. These sentient beings are everywhere, breaking over stone and crushing a lost world in their roots.

My heart is seeking a different rhythm as it gallops, races and finally slows to find pace with the ancient heartbeat of this lush living forest of banyans.

These trees are speaking to me in whispers. I can hear their sighs in the wind through their leaves. A chill grips me just as sunlight breaks through the high jungle canopy to kiss the stone ruins. What is this place?"

From the MSW travel archives, let's visit Ta Prohm in Angkor Wat, :
🔗
http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/11/09/the-banyans-of-ta-prohm/

07/25/2025

"To be disabled is almost always to be traumatized. It's living in a body that can't keep you safe. It's doctors dismissing you. It's family and friends abandoning you. It's living in a society that doesn't see your value. It's constantly having to prove your life is worth living."

Credit: Briana Mills, LMFT & Mills

07/25/2025

Costochondritis: Chest Wall Pain with Arthritis and Fibromyalgia

Costochondritis is common with and . It's VERY painful.

What is costochondritis? Why does it happen? How is it diagnosed and treated?
🔗
https://www.myseveralworlds.com/2021/07/29/costochondritis-chest-wall-pain-with-arthritis-and-fibromyalgia/