Patients Living with Chronic Illness

Catherine Ames

Ms. Ames, then at Bucknell University and now at the University of Southern California, was diagnosed with lupus, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic migraine and more.

As she dealt with eight hospital stays, 15 emergency department visits and “crippling, chronic pain,” she found that a sense of humor was vital to “keep fighting to find treatment and to get me back to college.”

Taking a cue from the Carrie Bradshaw character in Sex and the City—“She had this way of making fun of herself that utilized humor but didn’t minimize her own emotions,” Ms. Ames said—she started writing online for The Daily Trojan about her experience with chronic illness in a funny and clever student newspaper column she called “Chronically Catherine.”

A recent column was a mock letter to Merriam-Webster saying she found their definition of chronic unsatisfactory and offering a new one, including “procrastinating showering by lying on the floor and scrolling through dog videos while in your towel because showering is utterly exhausting,” and “having the same pair of pants in three different sizes because you never know if your new medication’s side effects will result in weight gain or weight loss.”

The amount of email responses, including notes of thanks from others with chronic illness, offers of friendship and television interview invites, has surprised her, she said. Finding her voice through writing led to a sense of empowerment in her medical care, she said.

“When I’m struggling with anxiety and depression, referring back to old columns, where I found hope or humor or resolution, reminds me that I can get back to that place again,” she said.

She sprinkled jokes throughout her talk. While sharing photos taken during treatment, she described one of them as her “looking super cute and flirty with all my bruised injection sites and five failed IV sites. I took that picture because I figured it was an enticing sight for eligible bachelors.”

But she also shed tears as she shared a photo of herself performing in Crazy for You, saying that was the last time she’d been in Pennsylvania before ACR Convergence 2022. In 2018, she flew home to San Diego out of the Philadelphia airport “thinking I’d be back here six months later to finish my senior year.”

“Today I’m here for the first time in five years, a totally different person, physically and emotionally, but all the better for it,” Ms. Ames said. “Today I’m in Philly with a new purpose and a new story.”