Celebrating Life by Doing the Walk to Fight Arthritis
The 2015 Your Life with RA team Someone told me that this year, I had the best reason not to do the Walk to Fight Arthritis, what with still recovering from the crazy health situation. To me, that means there are so many more reasons to do it. I’m alive. Having built up enough strength…
Ring Splints for Rheumatoid Arthritis
Updated April 23, 2024 “Why don’t you try The Arthritis Society?” Do you remember my experience with a youthful OT when I tried to get splints for some finger deformities? If not, you may want to go read In Which I See an OT and Come up against a Stereotype first. I’ll wait with…
Self Care aka Dessert
I had all sorts of plans for this week, many of them doing related to being part of what ArthritisResearch UK is doing for their National Arthritis Week. None of it happened. Because I’m really tired. I’m so tired I’m close to curling up and crying. It’s my own fault. September was a wild ride…
The Walk to Fight Arthritis: Making a Bad Day Good
I’d committed to doing the 5K in the Walkto Fight Arthritis this past Sunday and was very much looking forward to it. There was no reason to believe that I wouldn’t be able to do it — in the last year, I’ve wandered around various areas of the city for 5 km or more on…
May-hem: A Re-Post
Last year, I did myself a favour. I wrote — and posted publicly — a reminder about what May is like. Then I created a reminder in my calendar that I should a) read the post and b) that my loved ones know why I’d be incommunicado for the month of May. The reminder arrived…
No Child of My Own
Last week’s excellent CreakyChat on family planning and rheumatic diseases brought up some memories. I remember the moment I decided not to have children of my own. My mother is pushing my manual chair through the old part of Rigshospitalet, the hospital where I spent several years waiting for hip replacements. The hospital where I…
Preparing for a Hip Replacement: What They Don’t Tell You
Helping my mother through her hip replacement has come with a rather sharp realization. Among all the information and training they give you – and they do give you a lot — there are a number of things they don’t tell you. Crucial things. Things you need to know to make your recovery from a…
New Patient-Driven Arthritis Charter in Canada
To mark Arthritis Awareness Month, the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance (CAPA) has released the Arthritis Charter, created by people who live with arthritis for people who live with arthritis. What is the Charter? Dawn Richards, Vice-Chair of CAPA, graciously agreed to answer some of my questions What is the Canadian Arthritis Patient Alliance and what…
Real RA: The Benefit of RA Hands
Sometimes, RA doesn’t just take. Sometimes, RA gives. When I still lived with my parents, I was in charge of pies. I’d found the perfect recipe for the crust and loved experimenting with different fillings. Our kitchen wasn’t very wheelchair accessible, so my mother would place the ingredients and tools on the dining room table…
Like Snow: 13 New Names for Different Types of Pain
Updated November 21, 2021 Most people have an only occasional experience with pain and as the language of a culture is shaped by the majority experience, our world lacks descriptors of pain beyond the basic – burning, stabbing and not much else. Those of us who live with chronic pain know that it is a multifaceted creature. Legend…
Effortless: What Walking Looks Like to Someone Who Can’t Walk
I was 14 the last time I walked on my own steam and I did so with crutches and what felt like knives slicing through my joints at every step. Years of untreated juvenile arthritis had ravaged my body. Thirty years later, walking no longer makes sense to me – I have no muscle memory…
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