Thanks so much for commenting! Which hotel in Myrtle Beach were you staying at? It would be great if folks here knew what to expect, so they could either choose another place to stay or bring their memory foam along.

Please let me know if you decide to start up that web site/database! I’d love to contribute, or at the very least link to it here. Because you’re right–I desperately wish that a database of hotels, motels, and inns that was searchable by comfort and universal design characteristics.

I’m working on a list of hotels & etc with Tempur-Pedic beds. And wow, it is a job of work! I’ll be posting my first few listings later this evening. It’s taken me hours to pull together a short little list with the info I think is relevant to my readers.

Do you have any specific topic you’d like me to write about? I’d be happy to take suggestions!

If you think of it, I’d love to know what your experience is like next time you fly home into Heathrow and use the Yotel to rest before you drive home. That’s a great thought, and a great use of the facility to alleviate the pain and strain of travel. I plan to recommend this concept for my readers here.

You make the coast of Ireland sound so beautiful! I’ve never been to Ireland, though I’ve got some Irish blood in me. It’s gotten high on my bucket list lately–I’d love to get some recommendations from you about what I must see, and how to travel through the countryside without inducing any major flares.

I do so hope that you’re able to travel soon! I agree totally–NOW is always a great time to travel, to get out, to live. I won’t lie to you: when you travel it’s going to be hard. It’s probably going to hurt. But I recommend traveling anyhow–to me at least, it’s totally worth it.

Please let me know if I can help you as you plan your next trip. I’m always happy to answer reader questions as best I can.

Wishing you a happy and pain-minimal New Year!

Your piece about setting holiday boundaries with family is very important. I have a lovely extended family but because they only see me on good days, buoyed up with pills and rest they have no idea how bad my chronic Lymes gets. Every year since my son was little we have rented a huge house together on the Atlantic. But the last time I did it, three years ago, was hideous. I felt so exhausted and full of pain and a terrible burden to them. I also am the only one who can’t drive. By the end of the week I had only seen the sea twice, and one of those times was left standing for ages as my two brothers went for a long walk together and I couldn’t get back into the car, or sit down.

I found the whole experience utterly humiliating and terribly lonely. I realised how narrow my horizons have had to become and how for healthy people my world is utterly unknowable. So I’ve never gone back.

But I’m getting brave again. My dream is to leave the shores of Ireland, somehow, even though I can’t fly. And I’m considering the family holiday again but only if I am very clear beforehand about what I can and can’t do. I will need to rest most of the day, but would love every evening to go to the seashore with someone to support me, just for five minutes. And one evening I would love to go again to Brandon Head and watch the dolphins play in the sunset. The rest of the time I will read and rest. And I can’t be on the huge clean up rotas, clearing up a dinner for 10 people singlehandedly. Last year I would just go back to my room and weep with pain. It’s up to me to change all of this. I want to prepare and clean up after my own meals however anti-social this seems.

I think the hardest thing to accept, being the eldest of five, is that I am no longer big strong sister. I’m slightly scary, wonky sister who looks well but does very little. And I have my own self-perceptions to battle. To not let my own internal Prebyterian culture call me ‘lazy, useless, drama-queen’. In fact the opposite is true. I’ve been feeling a little worse than usual this week but yesterday pushed myself to walk around the block as movement had become so painful that I thought lazing around after Christmas had seized my joints more than normal. I felt so frozen and sore again last night I took my temperature. It was102F. Far from being lazy I had pushed through a week of that to cook, clean, and perform my duties for my family. I think most healthy people with a temp of 102 would be immovable in bed.

Thank you so much for the free association I’ve done here. It helps to let it all out. I’m generally positive and manage my care very well. So much so that very few people understand the pre-planning and pre-emptive rest that is taken before any outing. But today I was just a bit blue. Longing to fly away as I used to; round Europe and up into the Arctic, but almost scared to dream again. But being 50 has galvinazed me. If not now, when?:]