Winners
Last week, I wrote about an experience at Winners where it was impossible for me to pay for my purchase due to the pin pads at the cash not being accessible. I intended to also communicate with Winners directly about this issue, doing the advocacious thing. Especially as they have a link on their home…
Growing Up with Juvenile Arthritis
July is Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month in the US and my first contribution is the story of being a kid with JA: “It started when I was four years old. That deep in the bone pain gnawing at my right wrist, making it difficult to use my hand. The mysterious swelling that appeared out of…
This Again?
Sometimes, it comes in waves… One evening, not too long ago, I was captured by the light of the lowering sun and headed out with my camera. I’d already changed into my not-going-out-again evening outfit of red tartan flannel pants and a comfy cardigan (I call it The Lene Andersen Street Urchin Collection). My attendant…
Stimulating
It’s a Cokette! Brought them home, put one in the fridge, forgot about it until Sunday morning. Where after my shower, I was yet again as limp as a pile of noodles and had sludge for brains. The Boy opened the Cokette for his morning shot of caffeine and I had a sip. Giggled at…
My Best Friend
Jenni over at ChronicBabe chose “My Best Friend” as the theme for this week’s Blog Carnival. At first, I was going to skip this one – I am in the extremely lucky position of having several people in my life who qualify as best friends. Choosing only one didn’t feel right and writing a post…
7 Habits of A Reasonable Life
Hello, world. So nice to see you again – have you lost weight? Got a new haircut? Whatever you’ve done, you look fabulous. I, on the other hand, probably look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. Twice. The last two or three months have been hard and crazy and utterly unreasonable. I developed…
Habitforming
They say it takes three weeks to create a new habit. If that’s true, I’m screwed. I may have mentioned once or twice (or entirely too much) that things got a little busy during Arthritis Awareness Month. It all started at some point in April or maybe it was March – the specifics are a…
Sugar Beach Accessibility Tour
Remember my attempt to get to Sugar Beach? And remember how Bruce Sudds, the Communications Manager for Waterfront Toronto wrote me an e-mail committing to making some changes? And remember that Community Planning Meeting? At that meeting, my MPP Glen Murray – who is a thoroughly decent man with a passion for universal design –…
Juggling Life with RA: TIme Management and Saying No
In which I muse about how living with a chronic illness is like having a full-time job: “Appointment with family doctor regarding UTI caused by suppressed immune system, including travel and wait time: 1 hour 15 minutes Appointment with rheumatologist for regular checkup, including travel and wait time: 2.5 hours Physical therapy for shoulder injury,…
I’m Healthy/No I’m Not
My Writing Buddy has done it again. The woman keeps making me think and I intend to speak sternly to her about it one of these days. Laurie’s latest post In Translation is about coming back to the oncology centre for a monthly treatment and being asked how she feels in this question in particular…
RA Goes to the Oscars: an Interview with Christine Schwab
Last week, I had the opportunity to interview a very interesting woman: “Christine Schwab wants to change how the world sees rheumatoid arthritis. Diagnosed 20 years ago, Christine has been in hiding about her RA for almost as long. She knew that if she “came out” about her disease, she would lose her career as…
Range of Motion
I took a lot of photos that night. I love my camera, but it isn’t very fast in the dark, so every image was slightly fuzzy. I found a bench and tried to rest the camera on that, leaning out over my left armrest to find a surface that was reasonably flat, but still a…