Here’s what might happen when you find yourself living at the limits of medical knowledge, when you have a chronic disease that is only barely understood: You might stop sleeping. You might, while lying awake, long for your mother to come and allay your terror. You might Google your symptoms through the dark night. You might feel as if you are falling, careening downward, dizzily, and nobody is there to catch you.
And then, someone might reach out to catch you. It might be an acupuncturist, a chiropractor, a somatic healer, a nutritionist; a polite practitioner from the alternative health community might be waiting with outstretched arms and a protocol for you to follow. For me, that someone was Diane, my pixie savior.