Real-life disability and caregiving don’t come with a manual...

.... So we built the one we needed.

Disability, chronic illness, PTSD, TBI, and caregiving reshaped our marriage, our identities, and the way we moved through the world. We didn’t choose this path but we've learned how to navigate it together.

In Sickness and Nevermind exists because we know how isolating this life can feel. We know what it’s like to search for resources that don’t exist, to feel misunderstood by people who mean well, and to carry responsibilities no one prepared you for.

This space is our way of saying: you’re not alone, and you’re not imagining how hard this is.

After my medical retirement, I studied graphic design, discovered a love for sculpting, and began volunteering as an art instructor at the Travis Mills Foundation. I worked as a graphic designer, bought a print shop in 2020 to save it during COVID, and ran it for 18 months — until my body made it clear that the pace was unsustainable. A myasthenic crisis in 2021 landed me in the ICU for a week and forced me to accept that traditional employment was no longer possible.

Then I forgot that lesson a year after moving to Wisconsin and opened up another physical location, a coworking and office center called The Nook. In April 2025 I suffered another MG crisis and spent another week in the ICU. I had to close that business too. I'm doing my best to remember the lesson that my body just won't do "traditional employment". Around the same time, I was struck with inspiration to start writing fiction under the pen name Nikki Mayo. it's been a wild ride!

There’s grief in that. There’s identity loss. There’s frustration, fear, and a constant negotiation between what my body wants and what my life requires.

But there’s also resilience. Humor. Adaptation. And a deep understanding of what it means to rebuild yourself from the inside out.

Now, I use my artistic and design skills to run this blog, write for Myasthenia Gravis News, and serve as an ambassador for the Travis Mills Foundation. This work lets me give back in a way my body can sustain — and it keeps me connected to the communities I care about most.

Two years later, on August 10, 2013, we got married in northern Maine.

Justin has only ever known me in my current state — not healthy. That reality is actually where the name In Sickness and Nevermind came from.

ISAN started as a podcast — our attempt to talk openly about disability, caregiving, marriage, and the messy middle of life. But as my MG progressed and affected my vocal cords, recording became harder, and the podcast fizzled

In April 2022, after moving from Maine to Wisconsin, we decided to revive ISAN as a blog and resource hub. The slower pace of life helped my health stabilize, and I realized I could pour my energy into something meaningful without burning out.

So I spearheaded the reimagining of In Sickness and Nevermind — not as a polished brand, but as a lived-experience space for people like us.

We created ISAN because we couldn’t find a space that spoke honestly about the realities of disability and caregiving — the emotional landmines, the relationship strain, the identity shifts, the exhaustion, the grief, the humor, the resilience, and the moments that make you feel both deeply human and completely undone.

We wanted a place where:
- disabled people feel seen
- caregivers feel understood
- couples feel less alone
- and everyone feels equipped with tools that actually help

This isn’t a clinical resource. It’s a lived-experience one. It’s the manual we needed and the community we wished existed.

Our logo is a modern interpretation of the Valknut, an ancient Norse symbol made of three interlocking triangles. Traditionally, the Valknut represents connection, endurance, and the invisible threads that bind people through hardship, transformation, and the unknown.

For us, it became the perfect visual metaphor for life with disability and caregiving — not because of mythology, but because of what the shape represents:

Three distinct parts, permanently linked.

Three identities, three journeys, three truths; all connected, all influencing one another, all stronger together than apart.
We adapted the Valknut to reflect the heart of In Sickness and Nevermind, using colors that carry deep personal meaning:

The Valknut is more than a design, it’s a reflection of our lived reality. Three identities, one shared life. Three challenges, one partnership. Three stories, one community.

The triangles interlock the way our experiences do: disability affects caregiving, caregiving affects identity, identity affects relationships, and all of it shapes the way we move through the world.

Nothing stands alone. Everything is connected.

This logo is our reminder — and yours — that even in the hardest seasons, we are woven together by resilience, love, and the willingness to keep showing up.

© 2022 - Present | In Sickness & Nevermind, LLC | All rights reserved. No unauthorized reproduction permitted.