Chronic Illness

[close] Welcome to the MCAS virtual book club! This is a public group landing page for any patient, caregiver, or medical provider who wants to engage together about books that relate to chronic illness. Specifically, we are excited to dive into more information about holistic management of conditions such as mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), mastocytosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, dysautonomia, Lyme disease, multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic pain, neurological conditions, and a host of other conditions commonly noted with MCAS. The goal is to focus on 6 books per year that may provide insight or tools. The first book we've chosen (January 2020) is "The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD. Enjoy the book at your own pace and stay connected with others as you go! You are encouraged to invite others to read along/invite others to this group (it's public). Patients, caregivers, friends, clinicians... all are welcome here! Please share comments, thoughts, feedback, ideas, favorite quotes, etc. as you read along. If there are other books that you recommend for this patient population, please add them to the page bookshelf (the goal is to create a nice chronic illness resource library!) We will aim to pick a new book every 2 months or so (depending on book length). We hope there will be a lot of engagement/discussion on this page, along with some kind of optional video (Skype?) discussion periodically, depending on group interest. Please post a little about yourself and any ideas you may have for how to make this group fun!

[close] I'm starting this group for those learning to live with a dysfunctional autonomic nervous system, because there isn't one on here yet. Whether due to Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Neurocardigenic Syncope (NCS), or another type of Dysautonomia - we need the support of each other... and sometimes the escape of a good book (when we're able to read). :) Some of us have developed this illness due to a virus, or EDS (JHS), or another illness like ME/CFS... but whatever the cause our lives are no longer the same. Living with such a rare condition (one that some doctors know little about), can be very hard... it's important to have enough support so we can learn to cope.

[close] This group was set up to help chronically ill people connect with other chronically people who have a love of books

[close] This is a Book Group for anyone with Fibromyalgia. Feel free to share a book you found about Fibro or something related to Fibro. Hey, even if you've found a book that's a nice "get-away" from the pain of living with Fibromyalgia. Any and all books are open season as far as I'm concerned - just keep it PG-13. Nothing 'worse' than a romance novel, please. :-)