A Pack Mentality - Long Covid Community and Canines with Ray

A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast 100% produced by a disabled Covid long hauler. If you'd like to support my work, please check out the following ways you can do so:

• My ⁠Amazon wish list⁠, which currently focuses on low-spoon activities for my family this summer. We have four kiddos, with three kids who are also navigating disabilities.
• You can also visit my ⁠⁠new Amazon storefront⁠⁠, where I share only the items I use, love, or highly recommend. If you use my links to buy products you already purchase from Amazon, they'll throw me a few pennies.
• Check out my ⁠Bonfire shop⁠, where I create and sell long Covid items (shirts, totes, hats, etc) that reflect my dark sense of humor coping mechanism.

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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, one of the first long haulers I met in September 2020, has stayed in touch since. A registered nurse and dog trainer, she shared her experience with Trigeminal neuralgia (TN), a chronic, severe facial pain disorder affecting the trigeminal nerve, known as one of the most painful conditions. Ray discussed her brain surgery for TN, her long COVID story, and 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 reindeerAll 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 hatRay 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