🐌 Field Notes: Snails as illness companions, new Lyme disease vaccine, perimenopause diaries & more

"The snail kept my spirit from evaporating" — Elisabeth Tova Bailey.

Hello, dear friends! I hope you are having a healthy, lovely week. I have finally shaken off most of my pneumonia exhaustion. The days are bright here in the Hudson Valley now, all greenery and flowers. I find it so reassuring to remember, especially in the cold days when the trees are barren and the entire landscape looks dead: There are seasons to life, too. This one will pass, too.

Here are 6 health-related things I’ve run across lately that I found interesting. I hope you find something useful here for you.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey. I am reading this sweet small book by a woman who has chronic fatigue syndrome. Horizontal day after day, with little to do, she is unexpectedly gifted a snail in a flower pot from a well-meaning visitor. What am I to do with a snail? she thinks. And then, the snail becomes part of her day. She watches it explore. She feeds it flower petals. She observes when it sleeps, when it is curious, when it moves. And yes, she listens to it eat. she writes: “Survival often depends on a specific focus: A relationship, a belief, or a hope balanced on the edge of possibility. Or something more ephemeral: the way the sun passes through the hard seemingly impenetrable glass of a window and warms the blanket, or how the wind, invisible but for its wake, is so loud one can hear it through the insulated walls of a house.”

What Can Our Pelvic Floor Teach us About Motherhood? (Are You Okay? newsletter by Dr. Lucy McBride) — “Women come into my office all the time with symptoms—from low back and hip pain to urinary incontinence—that stem from a weak pelvic floor. Nothing says motherhood like urine running down your leg when you least expect it.” Dr. McBride offers useful advice and links to exercises.

USDA green-lights Lyme disease vaccine that targets mice hosts (CIDRAP at University of Minnesota) — I was thrilled to see progress toward eradicating Lyme disease, a vicious illness that is very difficult to treat and can lead to awful life-changing symptoms. Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, which is carried by animals, such as mice, which pass it on to ticks, which bite and infect humans. The vaccine is designed to be sprayed onto pellets, which can be distributed in outdoor places like parks, and then eaten by mice.

“You Never Screamed?” (Ask Amanda newsletter by Amanda Palmer) — On screaming on the inside, on screaming later, sparked by a lawyer question to E. Jean Carroll in court. “You do not scream, not in that nightmare moment when the plot crosses from something safe into something horrific.” (Warning: This piece contains explicit words and content and is hard to read. It is also a powerful story and explanation from artist Amanda Palmer, who has a world-class gift for getting to the heart of a brutal issue. Trauma is so intertwined with health.)

The Perimenopause Diaries (Susannah Conway) — “In the interests of posterity, and because this might help someone struggling, here’s how it’s gone down for me.” This is a long chronology, but if you are curious about perimenopause, it could be helpful company.

The problem with 'commitment' rhetoric: It can be a gate to keep people out and then devalue them for not participating. (Armchair Rebel newsletter by Michelle Spencer). I found this an important note on how limiting and restrictive terms of volunteering, work, and other participation can be, demanding full “commitment,” when flexibility would allow more people to contribute, and benefit everyone. “I have a lot to contribute,” writes Michelle, sharing that her illness / disability limits her capacities. “I love to participate: I long to participate and contribute. Yet a few times I’ve had it pointed out both overtly and covertly that unless I can ‘commit’ then ‘this is probably not for you’.” How frustrating! How unnecessary! And this could be changed. Let’s all have our radar up for ways to make participation more open to everyone and see the obstacles, so we can help knock them down.

I hope you have a beautiful day ahead. If you run across something interesting related to wellness, illness, living well, please send it my way!

To our journeys,
Brianne