A Letter to Someone Who Has Just Been Diagnosed with RA
#RAblog is a seven day event from September 21-27, 2015. The brainchild of Rick Phillips, the goal of this week is to raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis and build community. Up on over to the RADiabetes site to learn more about #RABlog Week and find links to other participants. Hey you, I want you to…
Managing Fatigue with Rheumatoid Arthritis
#RAblog is a seven day event from September 21-27, 2015. The brainchild of Rick Phillips, the goal of this week is to raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis and build community. Up on over to the RADiabetes site to learn more about #RABlog Week and find links to other participants. The prompt for Day 2 was…
An Hour in My Life with RA
#RAblog is a seven day event from September 21-27, 2015. The brainchild of Rick Phillips, the goal of this week is to raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis and build community. Up on over to the RADiabetes site to learn more about #RABlog Weekand find links to other participants. Day 1’s prompt was to write about…
Learning to Undress My Stress
Something had to change. When I went to the ER in an ambulance for a suspected heart attack for the second time in eight months, it was clear that something wasn’t right. When I, for the second time in eight months, was diagnosed with nasty GERD mimicking the symptoms of heart attack, it was time…
An Encounter in the Park
I’ve discovered that August was so wonderful, not just because I was only doing one job, but also because I took actual breaks. Although I was writing most days, I also made sure that by 12:30 or 1 PM, I was out in the weather (which was mostly sunny and warm). It seemed like a…
Dear Mercury: Are You Done yet?
Dear Mercury, Can we talk? I know that you going retrograde several times a year is something you have to do. I’m not quite sure why this is necessary, but I accept it. I also accept that historically, you’ve had a tendency to mess with Regan, my power wheelchair which has, for reasons (mostly) unrelated…
True Love Means Respecting My Independence
In a recent viral video called Blind Devotion, true love is described the following way: “Cecilia will never know how much I do for her and I don’t need her to know. That’s how much I love her, even though she doesn’t want me to.” And this is how the video ruins what is otherwise…
Is the Term Patient Counterproductive in Advocacy?
Updated May 17, 2021 “We need to support the journey from passive patient to patient leader. “ – Annette McKinnon How do you include the voice of people who live with illness — chronic or otherwise (patients) —in the decisions that affect how healthcare is provided? And how do you do that without these voices being used…
Writing with a Chronic Illness: Creating a Writing Habit
Lucy tries out for the position of Muse Writing is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. So, how do you exercise this particular muscle when you have a chronic illness? You start with creating a writing habit, and a writing trigger. The Writing Habit Creating a writing habit starts with…
In Which I See an OT and Come up against a Stereotype
I have swan necks. Several of them. If you have no experience with RA, you’re probably looking like one big questionmark right now. A swan neck doesn’t just belong on a beautiful bird, but is also the name of a particular deformity common in people who having had acted, untreated RA. It looks like my…
Why Me? Thoughts on Having a Chronic Illness
We’ve all asked the question at some point. Why me? Why did I get rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile arthritis, migraine, Crohn’s, psoriasis, etc.? It is an existential howl of despair into the darkness, asking that most fundamental of questions. Why did this happen to me? Closely on the heels of that question follows the expanded version:…
