Planning a chronic illness friendly wedding

So how do you plan a wedding, in 3 months, when you have chronic illness? The honest answer is, I have no idea… but I’m trying!

Join me, Natasha Lipman for a special episode of The Rest Room where I speak to my producer Philly about how I’m working to plan my wedding, without burning myself out.

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Natasha: Hello. And welcome back to The Restroom, a podcast about living well with chronic illness. I’m your host, Natasha Lipman. Today’s episode will be a little different. I’m joined by my producer Philly who demanded via WhatsApp that I grab my microphone and joined her on a call. Philly, why are we here?

Philly: Because you have just dropped a massive bombshell on me that you’re getting married. We had to come on and talk about this. We literally spend our lives talking about pacing and you’ve given yourself three months to plan a wedding. What the heck? Tell me everything.

Natasha: I am a massive hypocrite.

Philly: Big time.

Natasha: So we got engaged in 2020, but it was a pandemic, still a pandemic. And Sebastian’s mum is in Germany. So we just were like, we’re not going to even think about a wedding. We kind of didn’t want to have a wedding. We just didn’t really know what we wanted to do. We don’t like people looking at us. We didn’t want to have to talk about our emotions in front of other people, that makes us very uncomfortable. Which actually probably sounds funny because I talk about how I feel about feeling shit, but not about nice, happy emotion.

Philly: Not lovey-dovey stuff.

Natasha: No, I’m way too awkward for that. So we were in Germany a few weeks ago and then our friends got engaged and we were like, oh, we haven’t got married yet. And we’re like, maybe let’s just get married this year in three months in August. There were reasons for it specifically so that people would be able to come. We then were like, oh, how do we do this?

Philly: Because obviously three months to plan a wedding is not a lot of time, but especially when you have to pace, what the heck were you thinking?

Natasha: I am an administration queen first and foremost. So I think the fact that I love admin probably helped because I was like, oh, I get to search things and have a spreadsheet. So I got very excited about having a spreadsheet that I downloaded. So I didn’t have to even think about that.

I think it is worth us having a conversation about how to pace a big event because it’s something that I’m actually quite nervous about. And it’s a big reason why I didn’t really want to necessarily have a wedding in the first place. So I think the first thing that we really had to do is think about what type of wedding that we wanted.

And we really didn’t know, but there was something about a registry office wedding I really didn’t want because it just didn’t feel like, I don’t know, I know a lot of people are very happy with registry office weddings, it just didn’t feel it was something that I could connect with on a cultural level.

Even though I really don’t want a big wedding, I really love Jewish weddings. And so what we’ve tried to do is figure out how we can incorporate elements of things that are meaningful to us in quite a small ceremony. There’s two aspects of this to talk about, right? There’s the, how do you pace the actual planning of it? And then how do you pace the day itself and the lead up to that?

Philly: So are you actually pacing or are you not even taking your own advice?

Natasha: So I didn’t take my own advice when we first got home because I had a real panic about how much we had to do, especially in terms of thinking about venue and food, also because we’re doing it in August, so many people get married in August.

Philly: Yes. And this is one of the first years that people are getting married again after the pandemic. People have kind of put them off for a few years and now everybody’s booking up venues, booking up caterers.

Natasha: I had a big panic when we got home from Germany and instead of resting like I should have done, I was just Googling nonstop and emailing places and thinking about that. But I think we’re very lucky that the venue that we wanted was free and they’re really amazing and really supportive.

We weren’t sure if we’d be able to do it because I’m Jewish and Sebastian isn’t. So we didn’t know if we’d be able to get married in a synagogue and we can, we just have to have an adapted Jewish, but not Jewish-Jewish wedding. So we can bring in elements of things that are meaningful to us without it being a full Jewish wedding. So it’s quite interesting looking for the loopholes of what we can do. It’s actually quite funny. But so for example, one thing I’ve always wanted to do is smash the glass at a wedding.

And traditionally the man does that, but the rabbi, when we met with him was like, you can roll over it with your wheelchair. I was like, I wanted to do that, but I thought it would be disrespectful to ask. And he said, “You can do that.”

Philly: I love this.

Natasha: So I didn’t take my own advice. And then I started calming down a bit once I started to figure out how to pace these things. And Sebastian and I had talked about the structure. A lot of what we actually wanted, so, probably 15 people, a ceremony and a buffet lunch afterwards, and everyone can be gone in a few hours. And then there’s the more specific. So how do we plan the ceremony in terms of time and energy? Do I use mobility aids? What shoes and outfit do I wear and what food do we have?

How much stuff do we have to do before, during and after. So, that’s kind of the ceremony itself. And we can probably talk about that a bit more after, but then with the planning, because I downloaded a couple of spreadsheets that were really filled out with absolutely everything you need to know about a wedding, I downloaded them on Etsy, I could delete 90% of the things on there because they weren’t relevant to what we wanted.

So it meant that all of the things that I had to think about were pretty much written down already. I didn’t have to worry about that. And I could kind of then adapt that to what I wanted. And now that I’ve done my frantic emailing, we have a date, we have a venue. We have, I think, almost sorted the caterer.

Really frustratingly we’d found the caterer. We were going to get it from a restaurant that we really like, but they don’t deliver on Sundays. So we’re like, oh perfect, this food’s perfect. Oh, sorry, we can’t deliver it. And then the rest of it now is a few things trying to chase, but otherwise I would say we’re already kind of 70% of the way done.

Philly: It definitely sounds like you’ve ticked off all the big things. If you’ve got a venue and food, then the rest can just kind of fall into place. And if it doesn’t, well, we don’t want you to be naked, you obviously need a dress, but-

Natasha: I have ordered a dress.

Philly: … you’ve got the big things. You’ve got your dress. That’s also very important.

Natasha: The one thing I’ll say about the dress is it’s quite long and I don’t know if I’m going to be using the wheelchair or not. And then I’m like, is my dress going to get stuck in the wheels of my wheelchair?

Philly: Maybe when it gets here, you can try it on, test in your chair how you might be sitting, all the different things.

Natasha: That’s definitely something that I’m going to do. And I think speaking of the wheelchair, if we’re talking about the venue in and of itself, we’ve picked a venue that’s very close to where we live. We have picked a venue where the ceremony and the buffet are 20 seconds from each other in the building. It’s all on the same floor. So it’s very easy to get around.

Everything’s very close. You don’t have to go from the ceremony venue to the reception venue. You don’t have to deal with all of that faff. And then the other thing that they have, which I’m really excited about is they have a separate room for me to rest in. And because it’s happening at a synagogue on Yom Kippur, which is our day of atonement, we fast, I mean, I don’t fast, but my people, we fast and a lot of people faint.

I have once fainted from fasting and they have a bed for people who faint. So they were like, we have a bed because people faint. So if you need to kind of take a break and rest, you’ve got a room where you can rest. Which means that before the ceremony, I can kind of sit and have a break, after the ceremony, I can sit and have a break. Anytime I need to go away quietly, I can do that, which I think is going to be really important, but also really difficult because I tend to just run on adrenaline to get through something.

And I tend to feel like if I stop and take a small break, I’m going to crash. But maybe if I actually listen to Jo, that would be good. Actually that reminds me, I interviewed Jo many years ago about pacing an all day event like a wedding. And she gave me some good tips. Should I read what she said?

Philly: Yes, please. We need to know what she said.

Natasha: So this wasn’t specifically, if it’s your wedding, but I think this is just for big events in general, events like these can be really hard, pacing alone won’t solve this challenge. Pacing is part of a series of skills and equipment that you need to self-manage like a pro. Planning and prioritisation come first.

For a wedding, I’d probably start my prep a week in advance, plan and outfit, plan my hair, plan my travel. Three days before a big event, I start winding down work. Two days before I make sure I do all the self care stuff I can do in advance. The day before I rest, I prioritise my health over everything else.

This planned rest day allows me to save as much energy as I can to carry over for the wedding. Day of the wedding, I’ll use mobility aids. I’ll have people help me with the things I can sort of manage rather than struggling. I’ll be sensible with my food and drink choices. I will pace and I’ll sometimes find somewhere quiet to crash out for a bit between big events. For big events, I always plan the following day as a rest day.

Philly: There’s loads you can take from that.

Natasha: And I think what’s quite interesting is something that I remember Jo saying as well is if you’re traveling somewhere, say you’re in a car for three hours, which won’t be the case here, but I think the lesson extrapolates, take a five minute break in the car before you go and do something instead of rush out the house, get to the event, go straight into the ceremony. Give yourself time to calm, relax, vibes.

Philly: So usually when you get married, the bride would be kind of the last person to arrive, but potentially in your case, you want to get there a bit early. You can go to the bed, you can have a sit down, relax for 10 minutes before you then go into the ceremony. Perfect.

Natasha: And I think the other thing that I’m trying to figure out is mobility aids. Do I want to walk a very short distance? Do I use a rollator? Do I have a chair waiting for me for the ceremony? I mean, this is maybe just me being a bit vain. I want some nice pictures of me just, in my dress, but also I don’t want to have people watching me walk.

Philly: I get you.

Natasha: But I think if I could have the chair maybe when I’m there, I do want to get it bedecked in flowers. So I think that would be very nice, but also then thinking a lot of ceremonies are about half an hour and that’s actually quite a long time for me to sit and pay attention in one go, if I’m not actively doing something. I can talk and talk and talk, but I tend to find the more I have to listen to something, the more tired I get.

We’re actually really excited because there are elements of things that are really meaningful to us and quite exciting just because timing’s worked out for things that will be happening. So because we’re not having a traditional ceremony, we can massively customise what we’re doing and everything will be livestreamed for people who won’t be able to make it.

Natasha: But I think one of the things that is quite frustrating is we have to have a civil ceremony beforehand. So I have to think about having that a few weeks in advance so that I have then enough energy and I’m not doing everything in the same week. Trying to just make sure that I’ve hired people who can do things so I don’t have to think about it at all.

Philly: That’s what I was going to say. Are you delegating?

Natasha: Yes, I am delegating. I think the thing that I found really hard at the beginning was I was trying to find people to delegate to, and everyone was really booked up or ridiculously expensive. I cannot even describe how expensive. So I think finding people who you can trust to then just take that off of your hands, I think is really important.

And even when it came to something like my dress, I didn’t get the most accessible dress, but I got a dress that I think is very pretty and that I will be comfortable enough in. When it comes to the shoes. I would love to wear heels. I’m not going to wear heels. I know that’s going to be something more challenging and I will be more anxious on the day if I am wearing heels, just getting up and down. So I don’t want to have to think about that.

I have got some very pretty shoes that have a very low heel, but it’s a different type of shoe than I’m used to wearing. I’m mostly in the house. I am barefoot on carpet and when I go out, I wear trainers. So I have asked my PT and I actually asked her this morning, if we can on FaceTime, if I can show her how I walk in the shoes and we can discuss that and we can do some, I like to call walking practice and just really focus on the functional movement of how I move in those shoes.

And so I think it speaks to a wider thing that I’m only just starting to think about now, which is how can I start working on certain things that will give me time to build up and practice them in advance of the wedding? So the shoe thing is one thing I can start working on that now.

We have a few events that we had booked before we decided to have our wedding this year. So I’m kind of trying to use those as practice events in the sense of they are longer events, they’re around people. And just thinking about how I can pace, how I can use mobility aids to help me maybe, how I can really think about those things in an environment that is not an event about me. So there’s not that additional stress of having that event there.

So I’m really trying to think about that over the next few months, and really just start trying to figure out all of these things. And a big part of the reason we’re having a small ceremony is we want the people who are closest to us there because you don’t kind of want to have to perform for other people and be like, oh, hi, random person I never talk to, but you apparently should be here.

That is a huge amount of energy to spend. And for us, the first step was really thinking about what we wanted, what we would feel comfortable with, how big, who, where, what, why, and then trying to break down exactly what we needed, but because we are going so small, we don’t have to have a lot of those bells and whistles and time consuming things.

And I do think that one of the more challenging things is I do find it very hard to be around other people, anyone who’s not Sebastian, literally anyone who isn’t Sebastian, even people who are very close to me, I find it much easier to communicate with them online, via text or video call.

And so I think that is one thing that I am nervous about is the socialisation aspect. And it’s a big part of the reason we wanted a small wedding is that neither of us really are social butterflies. And we do find being around people quite tiring. So by minimising the people that we’re having to having only the people that we really, really, really want to be there, we can hopefully just really enjoy that time and then have a very quiet time afterwards. Obviously I don’t actually know how helpful this will be for anyone at the moment, because I’m still in very early days with everything really.

Philly: You’re in the thick of it. You’re still figuring it out yourself. But I guess it’s trying to just constantly hear yourself in your own ears and just be keep reminding yourself of what you tell everybody else to do, which is pacing and what we hear Jo talk to us about, about the pacing and how important it is because when it’s actually you doing it, it’s so easy to kind of get wrapped up in it and get carried away and think, oh, I need to just sort this out before I rest or whatever. So you are going to have to make sure that … I think you need to go back and listen to Jo’s pacing episodes.

Natasha: I think one of the things that Joe talks about as well is it’s not just pacing, right? So there’s other things like making sure it is set up in advance in a way that it means that the day isn’t going to be so overwhelming and there are all of these things in place that means that it’s not just dependent on the pacing.

And I think the mobility aids, the getting help from people, all of those types of things are going to be really important. And I got very overwhelmed at the beginning and I’m feeling a bit calmer about it now. And I think not only am I trying to plan an event in a small space of time, I’m also trying to do that while working. So I was kind of at my capacity for work. So then I had basically added this whole other thing on top of it.

And I think that’s probably why I got overwhelmed. So now I’m trying to be very mindful of how much time I spend on this per day and what I’m doing. And I’m hoping in the next few weeks when we’ve formalised everything, I won’t really have to think about it for the next few months.

So instead I can focus on working on making sure that I don’t overdo it as much as possible, which will be hard because we are actually having to go to Germany for a wedding in July. So there are things that we can do to help mitigate that. And we are going on a longer trip than we would have anyway, just so that we have some time before and after for me to kind of rest and recover from the flight and the event.

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Philly: So when it comes to work, obviously you work for yourself. So are you doing a lot of planning now to make sure that you can have the time off work to make sure you’re not … you can’t be working and getting married, can you in the same week?

Natasha: I haven’t really thought about that yet. I have on my Calendly blocked out all of this time already. So no one can put a meeting in with me. I think it’s really hard when you work for yourself. I think in a way I feel very fortunate because I have more flexibility about when and how I work. But at the same time, I can’t imagine taking a chunk of time off and not working at all when I have things that I have to do. And I could see myself texting you a few days before something about the podcast and you just yelling at me on WhatsApp.

Philly: I’m just going to ignore you.

Natasha: I’d rather you angrily reply than to ignore me. Don’t ghost me, Philly.

Philly: I’ll send you angry voice notes. Get off your phone. I’ll just be like, I’ve got the podcast in a control. It’s fine. Chill.

Natasha: Go and put a face mask on.

Philly: Shave your legs already. But no, it is tricky, isn’t it? But you’ve got to make sure that you give yourself that time because you can’t be working and wedding-ing.

Natasha: I think it’s quite nice that we are doing a weekend. So at least the Saturday and the Sunday, that’s time that can be dedicated to that.

Philly: And chances are, you’re not going to be getting emails on a Saturday and Sunday anyway. So, that’s really helpful.

Natasha: I think it is that thing of, when you work for yourself, it is really hard to turn off emails because sometimes people reach out to you on DM. Sometimes it’s on WhatsApp, sometimes it’s by email. So it’s really hard to switch that off at all. And kind of thinking about ongoing projects, thinking about how much time I would need. I don’t know how much time I would need because actually sometimes when I’m doing better, I don’t need anywhere near as much time as I do when I’m having a hard time.

So I think it’s too early now almost to say, I definitely need the whole week before. I could potentially work a little bit just sending emails or doing something simple earlier that week. It’s just then I think once I have a list of all of the prep things, so when do I have to book in getting my haircut before the wedding? When am I going to wash my hair? Who’s going to, well, I know who’s styling my hair. Thank you, Lucy. When do I, like you said, when do I shave my legs?

Do I have my bath that day? Probably not. I’ll do that the day before, all of those things, I think I have to know exactly all of those small pieces of information. And then I can kind of plan my week around that instead of just saying a hard no to everything for a while and just try and give myself as much time between everything as possible and not just rush at the last minute.

Philly: I guess on hair, nails, makeup, all that kind of stuff, this is going off topic, this is nothing to do with work, but I guess having someone come to you might be really helpful instead of you having to go out.

Natasha: My friend Lucy will do all of that for me because she’s very talented and amazing. And so I can be in bed and have my makeup done or I could be cozy on the sofa beforehand. So, that’s something just from the beginning we knew we would do. And I think that’s really helpful. I think having curly hair’s quite hard because you never know how the curls are going to turn out on any given day. Can I just say when I was in Germany, I did nothing to my hair and I had a great curl day because the water was so good.

Philly: The London water’s terrible for your hair.

Natasha: So, angry. But I don’t think it’s worth going to Germany to wash my hair and then coming back for the wedding.

Philly: Unless you’re going in a private jet, no, probably not.

Natasha: That would be nice. So Sebastian is actually going to Germany the week of the wedding to bring his mum over. So that’s also something in terms of, making sure that I’ve ordered food that will be here, that I don’t have to prepare anything beforehand. I’m just going to order ready made food and have that be here. Not eating foods I know don’t make me feel very well. I’ve already just started doing that in terms of, really paying attention to what I’m eating and how that affects my energy levels as well.

So there’s a lot of the on the week, on the few weeks before stuff to think about. And then it’s a lot up in the air. I think it’ll be good to talk about it when I’ve figured everything out. But I will say, I literally cried. We were talking about the wedding and the ceremony at the synagogue and then they were like, we can bring a bed in for you to rest. And I didn’t even say anything about resting or anything about that, but had said that I have fatigue and I just started crying. I was like, that’s the thing that makes me cry.

Philly: Oh no, it sounds like they’ve been so accommodating and so kind to you and so thoughtful of what you might need. And that just makes such a big difference that you don’t have to ask for everything that you need.

Natasha: And I didn’t even think to ask for that because who would think that they’d randomly have a bed? So I think there’s a lot of specific pacing things I really need to think about, but also the structure. So I think the next big thing will be how we actually structure the day in terms of getting ready, going there, having the ceremony, having the food. But I very much was like, literally as short as possible and then go home and take it easy. So, I’m excited, but …

Philly: It’s so exciting. Not long. How have you been, because obviously you’ve made a lot of decisions in the last few weeks, venues, what are we going to do? You’re making decisions and obviously that’s using brain energy. How’s your brain fog been making all these different decisions and having to think about so many different things quickly?

Natasha: I got very overwhelmed and I tend to find that what happens to me is I run off of adrenaline very easily, but I’ve now started to be better at paying attention to when I am running off of adrenaline. And I just feel like I’m running really fast and I can feel my heart beating. And I feel very, I don’t know how to describe it, jittery under my skin. And you can just feel things flowing under your skin.

So, that’s something that I’ve been feeling a lot. And I found that I can’t let myself rest, which has been quite frustrating. The more I have to do the harder it is for me to stop. So I’m trying to make a conscious decision, well, it’s not really a decision, I’m trying to make myself stop because when I was like, I’m going to go lie on the sofa and rest, I just then would open my laptop and start scrolling and looking for caterers and sending a million emails.

So brain fog has been okay in the sense that I have everything written down. So if I don’t have anything written down, I’ll forget it. But I think it is more just being very aware that you need to take things one step at a time and think about what actually is important because neither of us wanted to have a big weddingie-wedding and that’s not something that’s important to us. So there’s no reason to get stressed because we’re not doing this for anyone else basically. So we want this to be something that is meaningful and special to us in a day that both of us can enjoy. And I think that’s the most important thing really.

Philly: What are you most nervous about in terms of how your health is going to play out with the day and how you’re going to juggle it all, what are you most nervous about?

Natasha: I’m worried I’m going to have my period or I’m going to be PMSing because I tend to feel really depressed at that time. And I have quite a difficult time when I’m PMSing. Because I have quite an irregular cycle, I never know one that’s actually going to be. So I couldn’t even plan around that. So that’s something I’m really nervous about because that also affects my joint stability. It impacts everything.

And more than being able to cope on the day because whether I should or not, adrenaline will get me through the day and I’ll probably slash hopefully have a really lovely time. And I think something that we’ve talked about with Jo before, it’s okay to make a decision to push yourself. I’m not going to perfectly pace my wedding and take incremental breaks all the time. That is not going to happen.

So I’m making a decision to, it’s like if you’re travelling somewhere or you’re doing anything, you are making a decision and that’s really important to be able to do something that brings you joy. But I am concerned more about how I’m feeling in the lead up to it because if I do have a crash or my pain is very bad or I’m not sleeping or whatever those things are, then I will be a lot more nervous.

And I don’t know if I’ll be able to, well, I probably will, but I think I’m scared that I won’t be able to make as much of the day as possible if I’m feeling really unwell. So from everything that we’ve been saying about planning for the wedding itself, which is all very up in the air right now, I think the big thing for me is to be working really hard on listening to my own advice and actually kind of figuring out how to balance my energy levels as much as possible, focus on the strengthening work that I’m doing.

Just all of those things that I know help me on a day to day basis to as much as possible prevent something, I think that’s really important. And the other thing I’m scared about is the weather. It’s hot in July. So I mean the rooms will all be ventilated and everything, but I’ve definitely noticed since coming home, I’ve had very bad headaches since coming home because this weather has been all over the place and quite a few friends of mine have had similar issues related to the weather.

So, I can’t control my hormones. I can’t control my weather, the weather, so I can do everything that I can. And then I guess I just have to remember that my body is my body. It will do what it wants. That’s just the nature of living with these conditions. So I can try and do my best and just go into it with an attitude that I really just want to have a good time.

The thing is I might actually be fine. I don’t know. I never know how my body is going to respond to something, but I think it’s more, can I put systems in place to make sure that I am able to rest afterwards, but I think specifically because it’s not going to be a really big, really stressful event, it will be less of a come down, but also I think it will be less anti-climatic.

Because I tend to find with a lot of things that you have a lot of really high expectations for I crash, but I also crash with the anti climax of something. And because we’re trying to do something that is small and meaningful, the event in and of itself is not about the spectacle, it’s not about any of those things, it’s just about doing a nice thing in the moment.

So I’m not expecting to feel differently after the wedding. I’m not expecting to have a bridal glow. We’ve been engaged for two years. We’ve been living together for years. To us, this is a nice thing that we are doing, but it’s not representing this huge shift in our lives to us. And I think that in a way will also help in terms of expectation management and then ultimately not crashing psychologically. I don’t know. I don’t know if that makes any sense.

Philly: No, it does. It makes sense. Your relationship’s not going to change, your lives won’t really change. You might wear a wedding ring, but otherwise you’ll just sort of carry on as you were, won’t you?

Natasha: Yeah.

Philly: Which is nice.

Natasha:
I’m really looking forward to it and I think we’re excited.

Philly: Yay. Just one more thing. Are you changing your name or is there going to be a new Natasha presenting The Rest Room or is it going to be Natasha Lipman still? Maybe you don’t know yet. I don’t know.

Natasha: It’s still going to be Natasha Lipman. I have invented a surname that I want us to have, but Sebastian said, no.

Philly: What, like a mashup of both your surnames?

Natasha: It’s not even a mashup of both of our surnames. Because he’s German, I wanted a Von something, like a Von something berg and he was like, “You can’t just make yourself a Von.” And I was like, “But I want to.”

Philly: I love that.

Natasha: So I’m keeping my name.

Philly: All right. Fair enough. It makes sense. Can we just call you Natasha Von Lipman, maybe?

Natasha: Natasha Von Lipman. Yeah, that will work.

Philly: I think that’s got a ring to it. I like that.

Natasha: The Rest Room with Natasha Von Lipman.

Philly: Thanks for listening to The Restroom with Natasha. I love this conversation. I’m so excited. Can we come back after the wedding and do this and ask you how everything went and what you’ve learned from it? Should we see how it goes?

Natasha: We’ll see how it goes. And I think I’ll actually know more and I’ll have thought more about the specifics. So it might actually be more of a helpful type of thing. And I think this is a first for us, this type of conversation. So we’ll see how it goes.

So, that was something a little bit different. I hope you enjoyed it.

It was definitely much more of an off the cuff kind of conversation that I hope gave some insight into the process of starting to think about planning a wedding with chronic illness. Obviously I’m not all that great at taking my own advice, which is a big motivation for me to talk to experts on this podcast because I know how challenging it can be to juggle real life with chronic illness symptoms.

A huge thanks to our sponsor, Phlo – the online pharmacy that makes ordering your medication easy. Visit wearephlo.com – that’s wearephlo (P-H-L-O).com or download Phlo on your favourite App Store to manage, track and have your medication delivered at the touch of a button.
If you’re interested in following along with how I try and figure out how to pace getting married, I’ll be writing about it on Substack for my premium subscribers. There, I share slow content about chronic illness and I’ll be getting a little personal in the coming months.

Visit natashalipman.substack.com to subscribe. Premium memberships are five pounds a month or 50 pounds a year. That’s all for me and Philly. Thanks so much for joining us in The Restroom. Ta ta for now.

Planning a chronic illness friendly wedding

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