Healing Out Loud With Jackie Shea

Me and Ian, March 2017 The Intimidating Combo of Romance and Illness: Ian and I met immediately after my Lyme diagnosis, but it was another six or seven months before I got really sick. Suddenly all of the adventurous stuff we had bonded over was no longer accessible to me. I remember panicking with my rapid decline: How could I keep up a relationship with seemingly nothing to offer? Who would want me? Surely Ian would leave me soon enough. I didn't have any of my old tricks to keep him around. But he didn’t leave. Beyond the obvious foundation of young love, there are reasons why we made it work. Work being the key word, unfortunately. It was hard, but it was worth it. I get asked the question of "how to romance with extreme illness" a lot. So much so that when Eva Fisher and I started Wellness Companions, we were quick to add “Navigating Romance” to our service roster. Having both been in serious relationships within our (serious) illnesses, we knew the strategies that deeply served us and our partners. An