About

Welcome to Fly With Hope!

I'm Kelly! Fly With Hope is a place where I share my journey of learning how to manage chronic illness and hold onto Hope. From the beginning, my desire has been to connect with others who battle chronic illness as I learn so much from the experiences of others. Chronic illness can be quite challenging and I am so encouraged by the people I meet through blogging.

Check out the contact page on how to get in touch with me. And please keep the conversation going though comments on individual posts so I can get to know your views as well!


To share a little about myself, I live in Chicago-land with my husband, George and our two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Zoe (5) and Giselle (6).  Mr. Knightley (on the right) is now our angel in heaven. We rescued Zoe and Giselle from Cavalier Rescue USA: Zoe in 8/2009 at 18 months and Giselle at 4 years old in 5/2011. My boy, who I had since he was 8 weeks old, passed away suddenly 6/8/12 at nine years old and I still deeply miss him.

I went to undergraduate and graduate school for a total of six years to become a Speech Language Pathologist only to work as a pediatric SLP for two and a half years when I became disabled in late October 2005 by my Chronic Migraines and Chronic Daily Headache (more specifically New Persistent Daily Headache). I have had frequent headaches and Fibromyalgia since I was a teenager. In addition to Migraines, NPDH, and Fibromylagia, I have Meniere's disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, PTSD, Tachycardia and Food & Environmental Allergies.

Since we are talking chronic illnesses, I'm not the only one in the house with one. George has had Crohn's disease (and related arthritis) since he was a youngster. It went undiagnosed and untreated until he was 28. Dealing with severe pain and procedures and surgery, he came well prepared to be in a marriage with someone with chronic illness as far as understanding pain and things that happen in my body we just do not understand; though I'm sure the caregiver role was a shocker as I did not start becoming so severely ill until 10 days after we became engaged!

Since I am not employed, I take my job of caring for myself very seriously by advocating for myself and researching & learning as much as I can about my diseases. I follow a plan of medication and non-medication treatments that help me manage my conditions as best I can.

Prayer is a large part of my life as my faith is very important to me.

Photography has been a long time love of mine probably because it is in my genes. Though I am certainly not even close to as talented as the rest of my family, I love my Nikon D5100 and my lenses and making photos that make me happy.

I am a novice, but I love to cook and adapting recipes around my food sensitivities when I am able to. I love to watch old movies (1930's-1940's), so the Turner Classic Movie Channel is a go-to! I'm a Star Trek: The Next Generation nerd and watch Golden Girls episodes when I need a lift. My favorite vacations are going to Walt Disney World and to a rental house the 4x4 beach in Corolla, NC. 

Again welcome. I look forward to getting to know you better as well!

Kelly