Hello, and welcome to another episode of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! This week’s guest is Ray, who most long haulers will know from TikTok and Instagram as @rayandstormi. Ray was one of the first long haulers I met when I made my original account back in Sept 2020. We’ve stayed in touch ever since, and I really enjoyed getting the opportunity to chat with her. Ray is a registered nurse and a dog trainer. In our conversation, we discuss her experience, including getting diagnosed with Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is a chronic pain disorder that causes sudden, severe facial pain. It's also known as tic douloureux, Fothergill disease, or trifacial neuralgia.TN is a type of neuropathic pain that affects the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for feeling and movement in the face, and is widely known to be one of the most painful conditions you can get. Ray shares the story of her brain surgery to help with TN, her long covid story, and we chat about being bendy friends (hypermobile/EDS). Since this episode was recorded, Ray has been hit by a number of setbacks - the most difficult being when her landlord decided to sell the townhouse she’s been renting for almost a decade. Ray has been a pivotal member of the long covid community from the start, so I really want to bring awareness to the gofundme she created to help her while she faces housing insecurity after her brain surgery: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-ray-overcome-health-and-housing-crisis?attribution_id=sl:a483392d-3284-4f33-aa3e-22897038ef47&utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link If you’d rather provide mutual aid to Ray directly, here is her Venmo information: https://venmo.com/u/Rayandstormi I’m also selling a series of holiday tshirts on my Bonfire shop in honor of Ray, and proceeds will be shared with her: “Happy Paw-lidays! Cure long covid” features a brown poodle, like the service dog Ray is training, Goose. The pup is wearing a red scarf and earmuffs. All I Want for Christmas is a Cure for Long Covid design 1 features Santa’s sleigh and reindeer All I want for Christmas is a Cure for Long Covid design 2 features a cute sloth wearing a red hat and sweater, asleep on a branch adorned with holiday lights: “I survived another year - that’s your present” features a sausage dog with pink presents and a pink hat Ray also inspired the design of a shirt that says “Yes, I’ve tried yoga,” that has a flower on it flipping the peace sign. All shirts are available in long and short sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies. You can find Ray on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/rayandstormi/ And on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@rayandstormi This video helps tell Ray’s covid story: https://www.tiktok.com/@rayandstormi/video/7144530664161889578 Please share this episode, or Ray’s gofundme, if you can. And if you can donate, I know that it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for joining me for this chat, Ray - we need to arrange more of them! Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul if you can. And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes.You can listen to the A Friend for the Long Haul Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3n0GXLFRWqDJyifglNNM4K?si=7948dbf2222c4392 If you'd like to support this low budget/high love podcast, you can check out my Bonfire shirt for silly long covid apparel: https://www.bonfire.com/store/a-friend-for-the-long-haul/ or my Amazon wishlist: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3MYBB5G0P7YUD?ref_=wl_share
