How to Enjoy the Holidays with Chronic Illness — #ChronicChristmas on CreakyJoints
I used to contribute posts to CreakyJoints and was very happy to be part of the community. Alas, when my workload increased, something had to give. I’ve missed that community, which is why I was thrilled when they asked me to write a guest post about the holidays and chronic illness (and perhaps mention Chronic…
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…
Divisions in the RA Community, Part II: Making Room for Us All
Also posted on CreakyJoints “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?” – Rodney King A few weeks ago, I took to email and social media to ask about a certain undercurrent in the RA online community where people felt there wasn’t room for them. The…
Division in the RA Community, Part I: Pressure to be Other
Also posted on CreakyJoints “I had to stop going online because there was no comfort for me there.” (Kim Bruno, @kaurorab) “I have been made to feel that you will only be accepted in these groups and listened to, if you only share your woes and not your victories.” (Brenda Kleinsasser, editor of CreakyJoints Poet’s…
CreakyJoints “Clean My House”: A HealthCentral Exclusive
There are a lot of of great things about my job, but this week I got to do something extra cool: be the first to spread the news about the wonderful new initiative by CreakyJoints: “Keeping up with the tasks of life is one of the most challenging aspects of living with RA and the…
Weird around Wheelchairs; Thoughts on Disability Etiquette
“What size is she?” Early in our relationship, The Boy and I had wandered into a store. I’d expressed an interest in some T-shirts that were on sale and as a sales clerk expressed an interest in helping me, she asked The Boy the above question. She did not ask me. She asked the person…
Opioids: Friend, Foe or… Neither?
Crack-down on kitchen knives! New law limits number of kitchen knives per household: Measures protect Americans, save lives! Need a new knife? Show ID! Hardware stores reduce number of kitchen knives to 15 per month, refuse to sell all in stock to any one individual. “What would happen to others who needed a knife to…
Catastrophes and Calamities
It all started the weekend before my birthday when I was chewing some redleaf lettuce and lost a filling. I didn’t know it then, but it was the start of a cascade of catastrophes that has so far lasted four weeks. A few days after half my tooth fell out, my dentist told me I…
7 Facets on CreakyJoints and Battle for Grace
It’s been a busy week. I’ve got two posts elsewhere, both related to Pain Awareness Month: First, the great people at CreakyJoints graciously allowed me to share more about 7 Facets: A Meditation on Pain. “‘So many live with pain, many more than you can imagine. A billion and a half of us all over…
The Benefits of Space
I took August off from my job as Community Leader for HealthCentral.com’s RA site and a few other things. This cut my workload in half and I discovered something revolutionary. I work too hard. Now, before you experience ocular whiplash from rolling your eyes too hard — because this factoid has been in the obvious…
Writing to Heal: CreakyJoints Memoir Course
Combining two places that I’m proud to write for, I did a post about the new CreakyJoints memoir course for HealthCentral: “Have you ever wanted to tell the story of your life with RA or other types of arthritis? Now you can! CreakyJoints, the arthritis community started by the nonprofit Global Healthy Living Foundation (GHLF)…
Learning from Chronic Illness
This is my CreakyJoint post for this week… Living with a chronic illness — any chronic illness — is an excellent teacher. It may not be a learning environment most of us would choose, but once there, living through the experience can teach you some important new skills. Balancing everything that goes into living…
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