Demystifying Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Options
With spending so little time with our rheumatologists, we often don’t get an opportunity to ask questions and that can create a lot of fear around treatment. My new post for HealthCentral clarifies the options so you can get more specific in the questions you ask. And that will help you make better decisions about…
My Smoking Wheelchair & Praise for Soul
Starting today off with a small poem: The smell of burning insulation Smoke rising from my wheelchair(I’m okay) But I should start at the beginning. Day 1: In which my wheelchair develops a whistle Sunday afternoon as I was about to nap, I noticed a high pitched whine coming from somewhere. At first, I thought…
I Have Been Nominated In the Health Influencer Awards!
I’m incredibly honoured to have been nominated in the Patient Advocate category of the Health Influencer Awards. I would greatly appreciate your voteif you like my work as an advocate and writer. The Patient Advocate category is for “Patients who have gone above and beyond to share their personal story, network and speak out to…
What It Is Like To Wean Off a Tracheostomy
Updated December 6, 2020 Trigger warning: medical trauma. A quick recap: In March 2016, I got a bad flu, which developed into pneumonia. I ended up in the ICU in an induced coma and on a ventilator. Due to a bit of a mishap (understatement of the year) when being extubated, I had an emergency…
The Latest Of My Posts on HealthCentral
I have a couple of posts of on HealthCentral’s RA page that had been published in the last week. First is my post on coping with the guilt of chronic illness. I’ve become intimately acquainted with this feeling in the last several months. Wanting to be able to do things with your family, for your…
Book Review: Without You There is No Us
What do you know about North Korea? If you’re like me, the answer is “not much,” and that’s no accident. The country is notoriously isolated by its ruler and regime, closed up to the world outside in a much the same way as communist countries like the USSR and China. Without You, There Is No…
What You Need to Know about Zika, Chickungunya, and Dengue
I’m back at work after a month off and so far, it’s going pretty well. My first HealthCentral post in August is a slideshow on several mosquito-borne viruses that can cause joint pain: “In the past few years, mosquito-borne viruses that have been linked to joint pain have become more prevalent. Chikungunya was the first…
Silenced: Looking for My Writing Voice
Four months ago in the ICU, I looked at the retreating figure of the respiratory therapist and wondered if I’d ever be able to write again. They’d talked to me about the process of weaning off the trach. In a completely reasonable and diligent fashion, they went through what normally happens, and the rarer cases,…
Four Ways to Cope with Fibromyalgia Pain
In my July post for Mango Health, I wrote about four ways to cope with fibromyalgia pain: “I lived with the pain of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for almost 40 years before I experienced fibromyalgia. Having had RA since I was a child, I’d created a variety of coping mechanisms to deal with pain. I was…
Ontario Joins War on Pain Patients: Opioids, Stigma, and Human Rights
I used to start the day crying in the shower. The pain was so great that waking up and beginning to move was torture. So I sat in the shower, salty tears mixing with the fresh water. Every day. And then my doctor gave me a prescription for opioids and the pain subsided. No longer…
Book Review: You
“You should own what you love.” Joe Goldberg is in love with Beck (first name Guinevere, can’t blame her for going by her last name). So naturally, he tries to woo her and that starts with research. The kind of research that involves watching her and hacking her email, and that’s just for starters. You,…
3 Months after the ICU: A Surreal Normal
Every time I wash my hands or brush my teeth I see it in my washroom mirror. The line at the base of my throat, a barely-there horizontal divot that is the only visual reminder of my medical adventure. It jolts me every time, bringing back a moment of memory so intense that for a…