More Stories

Life Rocks with Rocking Candles

After developing Mal de Débarquement in 2018, Kate decided to be part of the solution. She started making candles and launched her business, Rocking Candles. Each candle sold raises awareness of MdDS, and she donates 10% of the proceeds from rockingcandles.com to the MdDS Foundation!

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Russ’ Busy Day at the Lake

I had just spent the 2016 Memorial Day weekend on my parent’s boat and dock. After leaving the lake, we stopped at a favorite eatery. I finally sat down for the first time and felt “it.” I looked at my wife and asked, “Does the floor feel like it’s moving?”

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“Lost at Sea” by Desiree Meek

Ten thoughtful images create the series “Lost at Sea” that tells a story of powering through the discouragement and darkness that so often come with having a chronic illness like MdDS.

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Submit Your MdDS Story

MdDS is an invisible illness but that doesn’t mean you are. Share your experiences with others and tell your story.

Before accepting your story for publication to our website, we require a short draft emphasizing the main point of your narrative in an e-mail to connect@mddsfoundation.org. Provide a working title for your piece in the subject line of your email. A Board Member will review and let you know if we’d like to see the full narrative. Note that a request for your full narrative is not a guarantee of publication. The following guidelines are designed to help you write your story.

Submission Guidelines
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Guidelines for Submitting Your “Faces of MdDS” Story

Include only information that you feel would be helpful to medical professionals or others living with the disorder. For example, people may want to know:

  • What were the precipitating event(s) or the circumstances prior to onset?
  • Were you misdiagnosed? How difficult was it for you to get an MdDS diagnosis?
  • What treatments or therapies have you tried? How did they affect you? Please note that medication dosages will be redacted so the information cannot be misconstrued as medical advice. If you participated in a clinical trial, your outcome or experiences as a study participant cannot be shared. 
  • How does MdDS affect your life, family life, employment, and activities?
  • What or who have you found helpful?

The Foundation strives to show the MdDS community that there is hope. Keep your story generally positive. If you are feeling down, please share in our online group to get the support you need. You are not alone.

The overall length of your story should be between 800 and 1,500 words. Longer essays will not be published, as the excessive scrolling is problematic for those with visual sensitivity. This online tool will help you know your word count. https://wordcounter.io/

Links to other websites may be removed; phone numbers, email addresses, and medication dosages will be removed. The Foundation reserves the right to edit for grammar, story flow, and other reasons but will not alter your story’s intent.

Including a high-resolution picture, preferably in horizontal format, of yourself or something meaningful to the narrative is optional.

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Submit Your Story

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