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…
Anger Has a Place, But So Does Joy
A while back, Laurie suggested that I watch Pink Ribbons, Inc. and it’s been on my list of movies to buy. It turns out that sometimes, when you lollygag long enough, really good things happen. Last week, she posted this news: The National Film Board of Canada is currently offering the movie as a free…
Ratings System
Yesterday, I read Trisha Torrey’s post about the ratingsystem. More specifically, how someone named Dr. Young has protested about his patients rating (judging) his services, calling some of them unfair. He also felt that people who didn’t “get over it” are “bad patients.” Trisha asks that since patients rate doctors, should doctors rate patients, too?…
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…
Real RA: Thinking Makes It So
Some time ago, I saw an image on Facebook about RA. Thanks to my fibro fog, I no longer remember who shared it in which group, but even if I did, I wouldn’t disclose it. Because I am about to vehemently disagree and there’s no need to get flame-y. This is the image And I…
The Sanest Thing I Ever Did
Updated September 26, 2024 Sometimes, there’s nothing for it. Sometimes, you try and try and try and then you try some more, but you can’t get past where you are. Sometimes, the struggle takes on a life of its own, colouring everything else around you, making it impossible to have a moment that is free…
The Best We Can
Back to work I went on Monday, humming that song from Snow White (except I always thought it was “it’s off to work we go” and now it doesn’t make any sense at all in this post). Okay, it’s entirely possible that I wasn’t humming – I spent my week’s vacation having a massive sinus…
Faces, Earthquakes and Ebola: Making Pain Scales Work in Real Life
“Please rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10.” Said by many doctors and it sounds pretty simple, right? It isn’t. When you live with chronic pain, rating that pain becomes a really complicated question. Pain scales are an attempt to assign an objective measurement to a subjective feeling. And it gets very…
Everything – A Re-Post
On Monday, in the Health Council of Canada video I talked about the consequences of not being able to get the medication you need because of cost. Yesterday, I posted my guest blog for the Help Council of Canada about the cost of chronic illness. Today, I’d like to shares something I posted back in…
The Cost of Chronic Illness
This week, I’m one of the spokespeople for the Health Council of Canada in relation to the release of their latest report on how Canadians with chronic diseases rate their health care system. Today, my guest blog appears on their blog site. I wrote about the cost of chronic illness: When we talk about the…
In Which I Become a Spokesperson
Today, the Health Council of Canada releases their latest report called “How Do Sicker Canadians with Chronic Disease Rate the Health Care System?” This is not the first report they have released – their mission is to “[t]o report on the renewal of Canada’s health system, focusing on best practices and innovation.” I love this…