#RABlog Week Day 1: Starting over
This week, I’ll be participating in RABlog Week, posting on particular prompts that were decided by a community survey. Learn more about RABlog Week and how you can participate. You can also follow the #RABlog Week hashtag on Twitter. This year is my 50thanniversary of living with RA. Well, technically juvenile idiopathic arthritis, but my…
Disclosing Chronic Illness at Your Workplace
One of the benefits of RA increasingly being an invisible illness is that you have a choice about whether you want your employer and colleagues to know about it. Sometimes, it’s necessary, though. In my new post for HealthCentral, I take a look at the issues around disclosure: “You’ve just gotten a diagnosis of a…
Shortcuts, Traveling, and Loss
Alcatraz, 1992 At some point in the ICU, I had a transcendent experience. Buzzing with excitement, I waited for The Boy to arrive for his daily visit and then told him all about it. That as soon as I was better, the first major adventure we were going to have was to go to Giraffe…
Dealing with Side Effects and Workplace Accommodations
That’s a bit of a weird combo, huh? It’s been a busy months, so I thought I’d lump together my last two posts for HealthCentral. The first is about the emotional impact of having side effects from RA meds: “When our doctors talk about starting another drug for our rheumatoid arthritis (RA), one of the…
Please Endorse Me in the Wegohealth Health Activists Awards!
I’m honoured that members of the community nominated me in the 5th Annual WEGOHealth Health Activist Awards. Being nominated for any award is always special, but when it’s your peeps who do so, it means that much more. I’m nominated in two categories: Health Activist Hero and, believe it or not, Lifetime Achievement. That last…
New Creaky and Tipsy Collection Raises Awareness about Arthritis
I love my job for very many reasons. One of them is that I get to interview a lot of interesting people. The latest is Michael Kuleva, the man behind the fashion label Tumbler and Tipsy. His new Spring/Summer 2017 collection is entitled Creaky and Tipsy and raises awareness about arthritis. You see, Michael has…
Don’t Sleep Your Life Away with Chronic Fatigue
Well, hello brainfog! It’s sort of ironic that a post about being tired was published just of the time when I was pretty tired and subsequently pretty forgetful. Because I forgot to post it here! Anyway! Say hello to my post about chronic fatigue for Mango Health in August. A bit late: “Ah, fatigue. My…
High Anxiety and Jumping in the Deep End
“Relax,” he said. “Hi!” I replied. “Have you met me? I am not a relaxed person.” I have lived with anxiety since I was a child. My first memory of being really anxious was the first day of Grade 1. I remember the red dress I was wearing. I remember being one of only two…
Two Studies on Developing Safer Opioids
If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know is that I often rant about the hysteria of the war on opioids and how it often leaves people in pain untreated.There is some good news on the research front. Two new studies show promise for the development of opioids that have no…
Exercising My Lungs
After that medical adventure earlier this year, my lungs are quite miraculously unscathed. When I saw my doctor a couple of days after being discharged from the hospital, she listened to my chest and exclaimed in wonder that my lungs sounded completely clear. About a month later, I had a chest x-ray and in the…
RA Complicatons and Comorbidities
A couple of weeks ago, someone bemoaned the fact that there wasn’t a list of all the extra conditions and complications you have to be aware of when you have RA. So I wrote one: “Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) isn’t just a bit of arthritis. It’s a serious disease that affects the joints and other systems…
Guestpost: Pregnancy & Parenting with Arthritis Survey Results
In the fall of last year, Laurie Proulx from the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance (CAPA) wrote a guest post for The Seated View about their new project on pregnancy and parenting with arthritis, of which she is the lead. She introduced the survey and asked my readers to help provide information on these topics. Today,…