More Than Meets the Eye:
Parenting While Managing an Invisible Illness By Julianna Steen
12 APRIL 2026 | BIRMINGHAMPARENT.COM which they define as “a physical, mental or neurological condition that is not visible from the outside, yet can limit or challenge a person’s movements, senses, or activities.” Of course, since you can’t see these symptoms, it’s easy to dismiss them—until There’s a good chance they are grappling with what the Invisible Disabilities® Association calls an invisible disability, E ver been secretly suspicious of the healthy-looking person who snagged the handicapped spot while you hoofed it from half a mile back? Just because someone may look healthy on the outside doesn’t mean they are: CDC research reveals that more than one in four adults in the US deal with some type of disability every single day. That means over 61 million people struggle with debilitating hearing, vision, cognition, mobility, self-care, and independent living—and many of these are not visible disabilities.
all of a sudden you’re trying to parent while managing your own invisible illness.
immunodeficiencies (PIs), also called inborn errors of immunity (IEI), are “a group of more than 550 rare, chronic conditions where a part of the body’s immune system is missing or does not function correctly.”While no PI functions the same, all disrupt the body’s immune system. Amy’s affected her body’s antibodies, the proteins needed to fight off illnesses, which led her to a constant state of sickness. The solution? In September of 2025, her doctor recommended she start regular Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatments. While the infusions drain her limited energy, she says the tradeoff is worth not getting sick all of the time. “For me, fatigue is constant,” Amy admits. “I am always tired, regardless of how much sleep I get or don’t get. It’s not the kind of tiredness that goes away with a good night’s rest—it’s a deep, ongoing exhaustion that becomes part of daily life. And yet, I still show up. I still take care of my responsibilities.
AMY’S STORY Family Resource Group’s Publisher Amy L. Foreman always knew something wasn’t quite right with her health. After all, it only took one day of cleaning the house to knock her out for a few days because of the dust. However, she just sucked it up and chalked it up to allergies. Eventually, though, in May of 2016, Amy shares the moment when that changed: “The right side of my face went numb, and a trip to the ER showed my sinus cavities fully blocked requiring me to have sinus surgery to clear them out.” After years of almost endless sinus infections—and countless allergy shots, pneumonia vaccines, and refills of antibiotics and steroids—she was finally diagnosed with a primary immunodeficiency. According to the Immunity Deficiency Foundation, primary
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