A Walk in the Woods
When we did the Walk to Fight Arthritis in early June, it was a big experience for a number of reasons. One of these was that I’ve always wanted to tromp through the woods in the Don Valley. Doing the Walk did not lend itself to stop and photograph the wondrous surroundings. Recently, The Boy…
Our Hands Can! Community Stories June 2014: Living Things
Show Us Your Hands! is launching an exciting new community program called the Picture Project. Every month, we ask people who live with inflammatory arthritis to take photos of their hands [involved in] doing something related to the month’s theme and post them on our Facebook page. The inaugural monthly Picture Project was this June…
Why Does Mommy Hurt? Giveaway Winner!
Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for a signed copy of Why Does Mommy Hurt? Helping Children Cope with the Challenges of Having a Caregiver with Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia, or Autoimmune Disease, the new book by Elizabeth M. Christy. The winner is Kerry. Congratulations! Send me an email at landers5ATgmailDOTcom with your address and…
A Medical Adventure
“If I’ve had a heart attack, I’m going to be really pissed.” – Me, Monday at 3:35 PM Well, wasn’t that something! As such as ventures though, it was one I’d rather not have had, but since it apparently had to happen, the end result was a huge relief. Thought I’d put that in there…
5 Tips on Helping a Parent with Chronic Pain or Illness: A Guestpost & Giveaway by Elizabeth M. Cristy
Do I have a treat for you today! A wonderfully informative guest post by Elizabeth M.Christy’s a.k.a. The PotomacFalls Mama on what you can do to help that friend or member of your family who is parenting with a chronic illness. And! A giveaway of her excellent new book Why Does Mommy Hurt? Helping Children…
Turn It Down, Turn It Off.
What’s with the noise? More specifically, what’s with all the bloody music? As my range has increased, so has my perambulations around this wonderful city I call home. I’ve discovered new streets, beautiful buildings, little spots of quiet magic like the Trinity Square labyrinth, and it’s all been completely wonderful. Well, not entirely completely. Because…
Sugar Beach: an Oasis in the City
God save us from small minded people. Lately, there has been some debate from certain City Councillors, as well as in the newspapers and online, about the merits of Sugar Beach. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know about Sugar Beach and how I feel about it, but in case you’re…
Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment Then and Now
I talk a lot about the revolutionary changes in RA treatment. This week on HealthCentral, I went into some more depth about how, specifically, RA treatment has changed: “Receiving a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) used to mean an inevitable deterioration into joint damage, deformity and disability. Receiving an RA diagnosis now means a much…
A Perfect Start to Summer
Summer officially arrived this past weekend and for me, that was reason enough to scuttle all work and goof off intensely for three days. I can highly recommend it. The adventure started on Friday, when I wandered down to the Redpath Waterfront Festival to check out the Dock Dogs competition. These dogs are incredible and…
True Catastrophizing
You know how I feel about catastrophizing (here, here and here). It’s that terrible term used to belittle the concerns of people with chronic illness and chronic pain. When you’re in the middle of an intense flare, it’s a fairly normal response to wonder if it’ll ever end, yet medical professionals define it as viewing…
Inspiration Porn, Stigma and the Way Out
Imagine a photo of a child in a wheelchair with a basketball, someone running on carbon fiber prosthetic legs or a person with RA deformities knitting. Across the bottom of the photo is emblazoned this text: “your excuse is invalid.” That’s inspiration porn. Porn involves the objectification of one group of people for the benefit…
Walking the Walk
We did it! The Your Life with RA team raised over $2,300 for our 5K in the Walk to Fight Arthritis, exceeding our goal by $700. Not bad for our first time out! We all got up at the crack of dawn Sunday and headed to the Evergreen Brick Works. It’s a beautiful green space in the middle of…