Before I was an author, speaker, or founder of Lupus Chick, I was simply a woman trying to figure out why my body was betraying me.

For years, I searched for answers. I questioned myself. I wondered if anyone truly believed what I was going through.

Then, in my twenties, after being struck by a pickup truck, I was finally diagnosed with lupus.

That diagnosis was only the beginning.

Since then, I've survived five strokes, more than 35 hospitalizations, a brain aneurysm, PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, chemotherapy, a pulmonary embolism, heart complications, vasculitis, and even temporarily losing part of my eyesight.

There were days I wondered what my future would look like. There were days I wasn't sure there would be one at all.

But through every setback, one thing became stronger than my diagnosis...

My resilience.

In 2008, I created Lupus Chick because I couldn't find the kind of support I desperately needed. What started as one woman's story has grown into an award-winning community reaching hundreds of thousands of people living with chronic illness every month.

Today, as an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and autoimmune advocate, my mission is still the same:

To help people living with chronic illness feel seen, supported, and a little less alone.

Side Effects May Include Everything is the book I wish someone had placed in my hands twenty years ago. My hope is that it becomes the guide you reach for whenever chronic illness tries to convince you that you've lost yourself.