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…
Show Us What Your Hands Can Do!
A Show Us Your Hands! Photo Campaign Building hope, one hand at a time #showusyourhands Help Show Us Your Hands! inspire and unite the inflammatory arthritis community and qualify to win a copy of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Managing Treatment, Side Effects and Pain by Lene Andersen! We need your help! At…
Shining a Light
In almost 1400 posts over the last 9 years, I have shared my life here on The Seated View. Many of those posts were about RA, fibromyalgia, chronic pain and disability and my thoughts and feelings about living within a reality that is sometimes difficult, sometimes funny and sometimes just… life. Some posts were explorations…
Juvenile Arthritis Awareness with Dr. Oz
Something pretty exciting has happened…. “RAHealthCentral is thrilled to announce a new positive way of raising awareness about juvenile arthritis! We recently had the opportunity to collaborate with The Dr. Oz Show to bring information about juvenile arthritis to his viewers, which number in the millions. An article written by yours truly has been posted…
In Which Normal Becomes a Mental Illness
The upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) lists the new disorder called Somatic Symptom Disorder. To quote my HealthCentral post from yesterday, “you can be diagnosed with SSD if for at least six months, you have had a symptom or symptoms that is distressing and/or disrupt your daily…
People with Chronic Illnesses Could Be Labeled as Mentally Ill
You may have seen articles about this issue around the Internet recently. The American Psychiatric Association is releasing a new edition of the DSM-V, used for diagnosing mental illness. A new disorder has been added called Somatic Symptom Disorder and it has some worrisome implications for people living with chronic illness. You can read more…
Blushing Furiously
There are some truly astonishing people out there. Some of these astonishing people have nominated me not for one, but three categories in the WEGO Health Activist Awards: I am completely overwhelmed and massively grateful. You can see all the nominees on the WEGO Pinterest page – I’m not listed yet, but they’re working on…
Waving for World Arthritis Day
Today is World Arthritis Day. One of their nifty activities is the awareness campaign Wave for World Arthritis Day. The idea is beautifully simple, something everyone can do: take a photo or video of yourself and family and friends waving and submit it to the World Arthritis Day website. So that’s what we did after…
Strive to Include
I was going to take a break from writing about accessibility and barriers to same. There was enough of an inaccessibility flurry before my birthday, what with Winners and Metro, the LCBO and Buskerfest and to be honest, I’m tired. Tired of not being able to use stores and spaces the same way my able-bodied…
The Annual Rant
This might be my last rant about Buskerfest. Despite it having become an annual tradition to which I know you’re all looking forward with bated breath (no?), it may be time to close the series (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011). Not because Buskerfest has magically become a paragon of accessibility – were it only so….
Driven to Drink
The universe is continuing the theme… There’s a bit of a celebration going on this weekend and although I normally don’t partake of alcohol (it gives me headaches), I decided to go in search of a particular product. I first learned of Woody’s pink grapefruit cooler when it was handed out free on the street…
Winners and Losers
Weirdly coincidentally, the universe has conspired to push me in the direction of a follow-up. If you’ve been reading for a while, you may remember my experiences with some interesting accessibility issues at Winnersabout a year ago and the grocery store Metro in late fall 2010 (as well as the very satisfactory resolution of both)….