June Shell Exchange

Welcome to the June 2023 Shell Exchange!

And to the (subtle) changes to the cute little image! (Notice my nod to pride month? We’re all-inclusive here at Invisible Inks) I didn’t want the Shell Exchange page to look one-note, so I decided a touch here and there wouldn’t hurt.

(And, honestly, I have fun making these images. So there’s that)

Back to business:

Midway through each month, I drop a list of recommended reads. I try to feature winning hermit crab essays (🦀) when possible. But those charming crabbies aren’t always easy to find. So I also make it a point to share pieces on invisible illness.

If you come across an essay or article I haven’t mentioned that you feel warrants attention, drop the link in the comments, and I’ll add it to the rotation next month.

1. “Uterus” by Krys Malcolm Belc from Guernica

“A year ago, I thought my eggs were in arrest, like the ones inside the fetus I am now gestating. I stood in this same kitchen the evening I had my fertility consult, cooking dinner. That night, I believed in time working for me: Many of the eggs I’d been born with lay in wait. Each month, one follicle would divide into two — a daughter cell, which would become an ovum, and a polar body, which had no further potential. But soon after, the doctor told me that my eggs were nearly all gone.”

2. “New Cases of Chronic Pain Outnumber Those of Diabetes or Depression, Study Shows” by Dani Blum from New York Times

“The study shows that as more people develop new cases of chronic pain, existing patients struggle to recover. Only around 10 percent of those with chronic pain in 2019 were pain-free in 2020, which underscores just how hard it is to treat.”

3. “OCD is Not a Joke” by Lisa Whittington-Hill from The Walrus

“The obsessions—the unbidden thoughts driving the compulsions—are comparatively less discussed. When I try to explain my OCD to people, they don’t understand the fears and anxieties that drive these compulsions or what the repeated actions are meant to accomplish. I don’t check taps because I am really into ornate faucet design. I do it because it is the only way to quiet my brain.”

4. “I Made a Decision at 17 That Completely Changed My Body. I Kept it Secret—Until Now” by Amy Scheiner from HuffPost Personal

“But people did treat me differently, and that mattered more than what I thought about myself. They took time to listen to me and not just stare at my size. I found that I made friends easier and was getting attention from men — something that had never happened before. I finally felt accepted.”

5. “Scientists Find Brain Signals of Chronic Pain” by Priyanka Runwal from New York Times

“The study, published on Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, reported that the pain was associated with electrical fluctuations in the orbitofrontal cortex, an area involved in emotion regulation, self-evaluation and decision making. The research suggests that such patterns of brain activity could serve as biomarkers to guide diagnosis and treatment for millions of people with shooting or burning chronic pain linked to a damaged nervous system.”

6. “Menopause in Young Adulthood 101” by Louise Bell from Hippocampus 🦀

“3) Part of menopause is having bone-density scans. The radiology technician is understandably confused to see a 26-year-old having these scans done, as this is normally done in people twice your age. How do you respond to the technician asking why someone so young is having this imaging done?”

7. “Pain” by Various from The Sun

“It never occurred to me to ask a friend to shop for me. I’d been schooled in rugged individualism, and my solution to adversity was humor, not community. When people saw me wincing and clutching a cane, I’d say, ‘Don’t mind me! I’m just twenty-something going on seventy-something.’”

8. “Have Assisted Dying Laws Gone Too Far?” by Meagan Gillmore from The Walrus

“Compared with disability support, medical assistance in dying, or MAID, seems relatively easy to request. Written applications differ by province or territory but are fairly straightforward; most are only a few pages long. For some of them, to confirm eligibility, an applicant simply has to sign and initial certain statements—for example, that they have an irremediable and grievous medical condition and are in a state of advanced decline. If any more health conditions were to crop up on top of her disability, eroding her independence completely, says Carlson, she’s pretty sure she’d qualify for MAID. ‘It’s a one-way ticket,’ she says, ‘because you have no choice.’”

9. “The True Image of the Past Flits By: Walter Benjamin and the Brain on Alzheimer’s” by Maya Bernstein-Schalet from The Briar Cliff Review

“Two years later, things had only gotten worse. Her outfit was the same each day, pajamas peeking out from under her black trousers, yesterday’s dinner staining her blouse. And her loops – oh, her loops! They were trying. It was impossible to maintain a conversation with her because she’d forget what you were talking about. When we spoke, I found myself brainstorming ways to politely excuse myself. I tried my best to be patient and caring with her, but it was all too easy to hold her to the standard of her former self. My stumbling twenty-two-year-old heart wanted her advice on living, but instead, I got Benjamin.”

10. “My Daughter Wasn’t Expected to Live Past 31. A New Drug Saved Her—But There’s 1 Big Catch” by Abby Alten Schwartz from HuffPost Personal

“The pills made a difference. Within a week, her lung function reached levels she hadn’t attained since middle school. Within months, her blood sugars stabilized, and she was able to stop injecting herself with insulin for her CF-related diabetes, a frequent complication of the disease. Most noticeable was the disappearance of her telltale cough.”

11. “Womb” by Kristina Kasparian from The Audacity

“As a pre-teen, I understood I was a misfit; I lacked the femininity and the maternal urge I saw in my girlfriends. When I played with dolls, I was their big sister, never their mom. When someone announced their pregnancy, my instinct was to say, ‘I’m sorry’ instead of ‘congratulations’” My periods squeezed the breath out of me, yet they were lauded for it, for doing what they should, for making me a woman. At 28, hot flashes and fits of rage were added to the list of symptoms that interrupted my days and nights. The threat to my fertility finally got me the medical attention I’d been denied for ‘overreacting’. Test results put me safely in the menopausal range. I was off the hook. Except that I wasn’t.”