Calling In Sick

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, I'm sitting down with Dr. Rachel Zoffness — pain scientist, pain psychologist, Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF, lecturer at Stanford, and author of Tell Me Where It Hurts. We are getting into the practical side of chronic pain management. Because understanding the science is one thing… but actually having tools you can use today, regardless of your bud...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with Dr. Rachel Zoffness — pain scientist, pain psychologist, Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF, lecturer at Stanford, and author of Tell Me Where It Hurts. If you have chronic pain, chronic illness, or you've ever been told your pain is "just stress" or "all in your head" — this episode is going to change the way you think about your body forever....

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Alec Bradbury, FNP is back for round two — and we're getting into what's actually on the cutting edge of chronic pain. New research, new healing modalities, what we're both genuinely excited about, and where to pump the brakes before you hand over your money. If you've ever been told your pain is "of unknown origin," or you've been burned chasing a miracle...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with Alec Bradbury, FNP — the provider you've probably seen on socials making chronic pain feel a whole lot less terrifying, isolating, and lonely. He's a nurse practitioner doing street medicine for the unhoused in Orange County, he teaches the next generation of providers about chronic pain, AND he runs a 1:1 coaching program. Basically, a badass. W...

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Dr. Tracy Shevell is back and we are busting every pregnancy myth I've heard online this year. Sushi. Sleep position. The "12 week rule." Glowing pregnancies. ALL of it!! We're diving into: 🤰 Why I announced my pregnancy at 5.5 weeks — and why Dr. Shevell says waiting 12 weeks can actually be detrimental  😤 Restrictive laws on women’s healthcare and the p...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down (AGAIN!) with Dr. Tracy Shevell, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist (aka high-risk pregnancy OBGYN), to demystify everything about what a high-risk pregnancy actually means and is. So whether you have a chronic illness, you're newly pregnant, or you're just trying to understand if you need to see an MFM… this episode is your full 411. We're diving i...

This week on Calling in Sick, we’re sharing everything about our gender reveal and closing out my first, first trimester!! We're diving into: 💙 WHY we found out early  👀 How we accidentally used the Sneak Peek at-home test for our gender reveal party (WHOOPS!) 🤢 First trimester wrap up and what's finally starting to ease up 💊 Chronic illness update (the good, the bad and the thing making me fr...

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Dr. Taylor Reyes is back for the deeper dive, and we are getting into one of the HARDEST things for us sick chicks in the chronic illness community. Movement. This is not a "just do yoga" episode. This is a real, practical, judgment-free guide to moving your body when your body doesn't always cooperate. We're diving into: 🛠️ The PT toolbox (manual therapy,...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with Dr. Taylor Reyes, a physical therapist specializing in pelvic floor health. Something I WISH I knew about after my endometriosis surgeries, and am relieved I know about before giving birth!!! Whether you have chronic illness, you're pregnant, postpartum, or just a human with a pelvis, this conversation is for you. We're diving into: 🦴 What the p...

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Dr. Jolene Brighten is back, and we are getting into something that I wish someone had explained to me years ago. If you have a neurodivergent brain and have ever felt like your symptoms get dramatically worse at certain points in your cycle… you are not imagining it. Your hormones are doing that. And there is ACTUALLY a lot you can do about it. We're divin...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with THE Dr. Jolene Brighten, board-certified naturopathic endocrinologist, bestselling author of Beyond the Pill, Is This Normal and soon-to-be-released ADHD and Women, and someone who personally lives with endometriosis, adenomyosis, ADHD, and autism. And she is connecting every dot that conventional medicine keeps ignoring. We're diving into: 🩸 Wh...

This week on Calling in Sick's Ask Alex, I'm getting into something I've wanted to talk about for a while!! The communication strategies that have actually made a difference during my first trimester. Best part? Chronic illness taught us most of them. We all know Cooper is Saint Coop for a reason. But this week I'm breaking down exactly WHY he's so good at this, and the framework we've built toget...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm getting honest about something I was maybe a little overconfident about going in. I thought 25+ years of managing a complicated, unpredictable chronic illness had given me ALL the tools I'd need for managing my first trimester of this pregnancy. Turns out… I was kinda wrong. We're diving into: 🧠 How chronic illness ACTUALLY prepared me  😴 Where pregnancy has TOT...

This week on Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Ali Moresco and I are getting into everything happening in the Lyme disease world RIGHT NOW. It's Lyme Awareness Month, ticks are predicted to be worse than ever this year, and there is actually some hopeful news coming out of Washington for the first time in a long time. We're diving into: 🏛️ HHS takes on Lyme: what the new government roundtable, updated s...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with Ali Moresco, Lyme disease advocate, founder & CEO of Moresco PR, and Executive Board Chair of Project Lyme, to talk about the tick-borne illness epidemic that is growing faster than most people realize. 31 million people will get bit by a tick this year. In some counties, 1 in 2 ticks carry Lyme. And most people still have no idea what to do when...

In this Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, I’m joined by Cortney Gensemer, PhD - scientist, chronic illness patient and mom - to talk about the questions so many of us with chronic illness are quietly worried about. Motherhood. And obviously, as someone who is newly pregnant, I had a LOT of questions for Cort!! So this week, we're diving into: 🤰 What pregnancy actually looked like with hEDS, POTS & MCAS...

This week on Calling in Sick, I'm sitting down with someone who lives this chronic illness life from both sides of the equation. Cortney Gensemer, PhD is a scientist at ChronicleBio, a patient with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, MCAS, POTS, and adrenal insufficiency, and the creator behind @CortDoesScience, and she is not holding back. This week we're diving into: 🔬 What it's actually like t...

GET YOUR TISSUES READY!!!! Because this week, on Calling in Sick, I’m sharing the biggest news yet… after 7 years of praying, delayed timelines, a miscarriage and so many set backs. We. Are. FINALLY. PREGNANT!!!!!!  And today I'm getting into ALL of it: 🌍 How we found out in Amsterdam ❤️ What telling our families was like  🤰 How I’m feeling at 6 weeks 🤯 What my autoimmune symptoms have been lik...

If you've been following me on socials, you already know this, and if you don’t, then sit down for this new…. Saint Cooper and I are PREGNANT!! 🎉 We spent last week celebrating this surprise, and I took the week of from podcasting. So this week I'm re-releasing my two favorite episodes about my chronic illness and motherhood journey… and honestly, Alex in those episodes had absolutely NO idea wha...

If you've been following me on socials, you already know this, and if you don’t, then sit down for this new…. Saint Cooper and I are PREGNANT!! 🎉 We spent last week celebrating this surprise, and I took the week of from podcasting. So this week I'm re-releasing my two favorite episodes about my chronic illness and motherhood journey… and honestly, Alex in those episodes had absolutely NO idea wha...

In this Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, I’m joined by Mickey Trescott to talk about one of the most confusing parts of living with chronic illness: figuring out what’s actually helping… and what might be making things worse. From “food as medicine” discourse to the overuse of words like remission, this conversation gets into the nuance that’s so often missing online. We cover: 💊 Diet vs. medication:...

This week on Calling in Sick, I’m sitting down with Mickey Trescott (@mickeytrescott), one of the original voices behind the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), to talk about what AIP actually is, who it’s for, and how to approach food when you’re living with chronic illness without spiraling into overwhelm. Mickey shares the story of her own autoimmune diagnosis journey, how changing the way she ate becam...

In this Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, I’m joined by Shamekka Marty to discuss the deeply personal and often invisible impact of living with chronic illnesses… how the diagnosis and disease ripples through every aspect of life and relationships. From the way your children see you to the difficult conversations you have with your employer regarding your health. We cover: 💜 Parenting with chronic illn...

This week on Calling in Sick, we are honored to sit down with one of the most resilient and powerful voices in the chronic illness community: Shamekka Marty, better known as Mika or the “Pretty Sick Lupus Chick”. Mika’s journey is a masterclass in turning medical trauma into advocacy, having navigated a life shaped by caregiving, a life-saving kidney transplant, medical trauma and the complexities...

In this Calling in Sick x Ask Alex, Dr. Natalie Crawford and I are diving into a rapid-fire round of fertility "hot takes" and essential pregnancy "no-gos". We cut through the noise of social media trends to bring you the data-backed truth about what really matters when you're trying to conceive or expecting. We cover: 💊 The Wild West of Prenatals 🧬 Folic Acid vs. Methylated Folate 🍵 The truth...