Jodi Ettenberg
@legalnomads.com
Once a lawyer, then a celiac travel writer. Now disabled, writing about curiosity & health. Travel writing & gluten-free guides: legalnomads.com The best things I read each month: jodiettenberg.substack.com MCAS, meditation, & health: jodiettenberg.com
I wrote about something I've wanted to discuss for some time: living grief. In losing my stepmom earlier this year, the difference between bereavement grief and the "living grief" of chronic illness became more clear. They diverge not only in terms of how it feels, but in how society treats them.
Incredible, fascinating pieces in this month's CAE, including some mysteries of science like why pigeons always find their way home, & why some people (like me!) are born left-handed (we still don't know), & whether crows are actually friends or whether they're just training us to give them treats.
I was so very excited to be the lead author on a recent paper about barriers to care in spinal CSF leak, and my friend surprised me with with the best gift: she had the abstract printed on a mug and sent it my way. SO THOUGHTFUL 😭
Very happy to read that Polycystic Ovary Syndrome has been officially renamed Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS) following a global consensus study published today in The Lancet. And it’s open access! www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
I got my Canadian census this week, and it turns out that Stats Canada made a series of themed soundtracks we can play while filling it out. Love it. www.statcan.gc.ca/en/census/ce...
I wrote this just before British Columbia announced it would be adopting DST permanently. BAD IDEA. Bad for the immune system; bad for our health. If we stop shifting time, we should be adopt permanent STANDARD time, not DST. All about why it matters: www.patreon.com/posts/rant-a...
Someone posted my deep dive about cross-contact vs. cross-contamination in food to reddit. SORRY I LIKE TO WRITE ABOUT ETYMOLOGY SUE ME. www.legalnomads.com/cross-contac... (The piece does have citations, but I know you can't please everyone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. At least I learned a lot writing it)
Another paper about how Covid affects sperm count, yet antivaxxers are still going on and on about the vaccines being what causes it. Nope, like much else, it's the virus itself: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... (More on how vaccines don't affect fertility: www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/lar...)
That first amendment is really coming in clutch these days
Vice President JD Vance issues warning to U.S. Olympians over politics
JD Vance would like American athletes competing in the 2026 Winter Olympics to kindly stop speaking out against the Trump administration: 'You're not there to pop off about politics.'
ew.com
We paid for it, we even hired US workers to help build it, and we lose out because it’s jointly owned. But sure, we’re the bad guy.
Trump threatens to block opening of US-Canada bridge
The White House has reiterated its demands even after a 'positive' call between Trump and Mark Carney.
bbc.com
The CDC says it's fine to resume normal activities 24 hrs after Covid symptoms are improving. A new, large prospective study with digital tracking shows recovery takes much longer than that www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
One of the most difficult aspects of having your life change overnight is how to reckon with the loss of identity. For a decade, I lived and breathed food and travel, & I loved the life I had built. Suddenly, I could barely stand up. About spinal CSF leak and loss of identity:
The idea that Covid could damage the brain appeared very early in the pandemic. Society can pretend all it wants that it's "not a big deal" to get infected, but the brain remembers (and not in a good way).
You are probably getting brain damage from all those COVID infections.
A worrying look into the literature on COVID and brain health.
synergies.substack.com
As someone living in that interstitial space, this hits: "We tend to understand illness as something you either die from, or recover from. Those of us who are chronically ill live in the awkward inbetween space. Not dying, but not getting better either. Not an emergency,not something fully resolved"
Effort Without Improvement
Chronic illness, meritocracy, and the pressure to do more
kristiedegaris.substack.com
Do you ever wonder about trilobite appendages? Literally everything ever known has now been reviewed by Sarah Losso @thomashegna.bsky.social @invertebratepal.bsky.social 🧪⚒️🦑 osf.io/preprints/pa...
CAE 58 is out, with the most interesting things I read in December, & some end of year lists: jodiettenberg.substack.com/p/fifty-eight Including: @matthabusby.bsky.social's profile of psychonaut Bruce Damer @occrp.org on a South Pacific Ponzi king @jstor.bsky.social on the Tonka bean
This a hard year, a compounded boulder of heath issues and other challenges. I haven't done a year-end recap in eons but it's a good reminder (to me, mostly!) that even in tiny increments, even if they're painful, you can still create something exciting. www.legalnomads.com/2025-year-end/
Amazing that this review paper from 2021 just became my most cited paper of my 30+ yr career. I am honored to have been the lead first co-corresponding author with @ChiaWang8. COVID is indeed airborne--as are most other respiratory viruses. @ucsandiego.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses
A Review discusses the scientific basis of and factors controlling airborne transmission of respiratory viruses including coronavirus.
science.org
Meanwhile in Ottawa part deux: ottawacitizen.com/news/uber-to... a very cute story
Ottawa man takes his Uber driver tobogganing for first time
Dave Nguyen discovered his Uber driver, Chance Niryomugabo, had never been tobogganing. A few days later, the two new friends were ripping down the Charlie Rogers Place hill in Kanata
ottawacitizen.com
"As a physician, I empathize with the lack of familiarity; doctors only know what they know, and headache, after all, is a common complaint. But as a patient, I can’t help feeling angry. It seems that many doctors simply do not believe spinal CSF leak patients."
More Than Just a Headache: The Lonely Journey of a Spinal CSF Leak Patient
In early June 2024, I picked up my paddleboard, noting that it felt heavier than I’d remembered. Over the next few hours, I developed searing neck ...
opmed.doximity.com
This WSJ piece was so indelibly biased wow. I’m not estranged from my parents, but I know people who are (imo validly) & their parents constantly claim they are the victims. Why don’t we hear from the kids’ POV in this story? Smacks of missing missing reasons. archive.is/2025.12.16-1...
This is one of those times when all of the bad news just sucks the air out of your lungs.
