The Rest Room

Feb 08 2023 31 ep. 41 mins 500
The Rest Room Podcast artwork

Welcome to The Rest Room: a place to explore what it means to live (and live well) with chronic illness.

natashalipman.substack.com

  Health & Fitness
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On convalescence & chronic illness

Feb 08 2023 42 mins  
A little while ago, my doctor told me that I need to convalesce. My instinct? To record a podcast episode about convalescence. In which I was called out (kindly) for that being my first instinct.The episode is, I think, a fascinating conversation about what realistic convalescence in 2023 looks like when you live with a long-term health condition and can’t just disappear to “go

What actually is Post-Exertional Malaise?

Jan 31 2023 37 mins  
Do you experience Post-Exertional Malaise? I have for a number of years now, and it can be utterly debilitating. But, like the term “brain fog”, I know what PEM means, what it feels like, subjectively, but I didn’t know all that much about what we actually mean when we talk about PEM. What’s actually happening inside our bodies when we experience these exacerbation of sympt

The Rest Room: A 2022 Wrap-Up

Dec 20 2022 52 mins  
This year has been the best one yet when it comes to this podcast. I’ve been working with an amazing producer (big shoutout to Philly Guillou!) which means we’ve been able to consistently release two episodes a month - and with her support I’ve been able to start working on the kind of content I always felt like I needed when I was younger and early on in my diagnosis. I’ve

How to survive (and enjoy!) the festive season with chronic illness

Dec 06 2022 50 mins  
Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, when December rolls around (and you live in a Christian country) there’s a whole lots of special festive stuff going on. Whether it’s invites to dinner or New Year parties, Secret Santa, family meals, festive drinks in a bedecked pub - there’s often a whole lot more social stuff to do, presents to wrap, ugly Christmas jumpers to wear, a

What happens when diagnostic criteria aren't fit for purpose?

Nov 22 2022 41 mins  
In this episode we discuss:* The history of the Beighton Score - how did a tool used for epidemiological studies come to be used to test for EDS? And should it have been?* The limitations of the current EDS criteria (and what the hell happened with the HSD diagnosis)* The difficulties of creating a diagnostic criteria for hEDS* What’s the deal with “the gene”?* More about Sab

How to make the most of your medical appointments

Nov 02 2022 60 mins  
One of the saddest (and yet not surprising) things I’ve heard over the years in my conversations with chronically ill people is how many people have had negative experiences with medical professionals.I wanted to talk to someone who has experience on both sides of the doctor-patient relationship. And with that in mind, I’m delighted to share a chat I recently had with Hannah Ba

Inside a chronic illness-friendly workplace

Oct 18 2022 33 mins  
In the last episode of The Rest Room podcast, we explored the tricky beast of navigating work when you live with chronic illness.As I mentioned, there are many people who are too unwell to work, but there are also many of us who (with the right roles, adjustments and support) may be able to work even a little bit.With the help of my guests Pippa Stacey and Bruce Daisley, we discuss

Navigating work & chronic illness

Oct 03 2022 48 mins  
This week, we’re joined by good friend of the Rest Room, Pippa Stacey, a writer, blogger and public speaker who works with the UK charity Astriid, which matches talented people with long-term health conditions with meaningful work. We’re also joined by Bruce Daisley, who’s a best-selling author and self-proclaimed workplace culture enthusiast. We discuss the state of inclusiv

Can technology teach me to pace?

Sep 20 2022 58 mins  
When I heard that a new startup called Visible was building wearable technology to help people with energy-limiting conditions learn how to pace - using real-time data from our own bodies to help us understand how exertion is impacting our health - I got extremely excited. I was lucky enough to join the team in April, and in today's episode I'm joined by our co-founder, C

Fear, Pain & Hope: Movement with Hypermobility

Sep 06 2022 52 mins  
How we think about movement when living with hypermobiliy is a subject I’m super interested in, so I’m delighted to have had the opportunity to chat with Joint Hypermobility & Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Movement Therapist, Jeannie Di Bon. I’ve worked with Jeannie a couple of times in the past and I personally found her approach to the hypermobile body so refreshing. In today�