The Evolving Shapes of Chronic Illness Stories

By Molly J. Wick

At age 21, a blood clot travelled from a vein in my leg into my chest. There, it sat, saddled between my lungs, growing until I could convince a doctor that something was wrong. After 39 days in the hospital, I made a full recovery.

Here’s the story I first told of what had happened: 

2007: I had a blood clot in my lung, I recovered, and I moved on. 

Our brains like to make sense of the world, so they can prepare us for what might come next. This is part of my dri...