When RA Interrupts a Pro Baseball Career
Emil deAndreis had just signed his first pro contract as a baseball player when rheumatoid arthritis went nuts in his body. His new book is a memoir of his life with baseball (an excellent book, by the way). I interviewed him for HealthCentral: “”Almost everything good that has happened to me has its roots in…
What People with RA Want You to Know
Living with RA can be really hard and I’m not talking about the pain and fatigue. The reactions from people you meet and the lack of knowledge can create some truly unique situations. For my new HealthCentral slideshow, I asked the RA community what they most wanted others to know: “Living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)…
The Heartbreak of Missing Out Because of Chronic Illness
There are blank spaces in my life when I had to disappear because my RA flared and I only had enough energy to get through each day. In my new post for HealthCentral, I share what it’s like to miss out because of chronic illness: >”There are many different ways of getting there, but the…
Setting Boundaries in Health Care
Do you know what you’d do if faced with an angry doctor or a nurse who repeatedly couldn’t find a vein? My new post for HealthCentral looks at setting boundariesin health care situations. “We all have a sense of boundaries on what we will accept, and what we can do and say to each other….
Hairloss and RA: Why and How to Cope
RA comes with friends, a.k.a. comorbidities and this medication side effects. These are not always that visible, but one, usually rare, “friend” is: hair loss. Like we don’t have enough to deal with. In my new post for HealthCentral, I look at the causes of hair loss related to RA and what you can do…
Self-Care Tps for a Bad RA Day
Having a bad day (week) with rheumatoid arthritis? Check out the self-care tips in my new slideshow for HealthCentral: “Bad days are inevitable when you have rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Between the pain, the intense fatigue, and general feeling of being unwell, sometimes it can be challenging just getting out of bed. Treating the disease with…
Dealing with Nausea in Chronic Illness
I have battled nausea for as long as I’ve had RA, so why not write what you know? My new post for HealthCentral looks at how to cope with nausea related to chronic illness: “Nausea is a particularly nasty symptom. Your stomach’s on a rollercoaster and you’re sure you’re going to throw up. It can…
Relationships and Talking about Pain Study
How do you talk to your partner about your pain? Or don’t you talk about it? A new study investigates the reasons why people talk or don’t talk about their pain. One of the co-investigators talks about the background for the study and how you can participate: “One of the hardest things about living with…
Am I Single Because I Have a Chronic Illness?
It’s something almost every single person who lives with chronic illnesses wondered: am I single because of my condition? The answer in my new post for HealthCentral: “When you’re single in what seems to be a sea of happy couples it’s all too easy to look at reasons for your singleness with an excessively critical…
Managing Healthcare Appointments: An Interview with Ricky White
As the month of January wore on, I found myself doing just a little bit of work to start easing back into things. One of the things I did was review a fantastic new book by Ricky White called Taking Charge:Making Your Healthcare Appointments Work for You. No matter how long you’ve a chronic illness,…
Empower Yourself with Chronic Illness in 2017
This year on RAHealthCentral, we are going to talk about empowerment and chronic illness: what it is, why it’s important, and how to get there: “Do you feel powerless in the face of your chronic illness and everything that comes with it? This year, we will help you transform into being empowered in your health…
The Year in Review on RAHealthCentral
Year-in-review articles all around in this. Personally, I’m sort of addicted to the things, so it was a pleasure to write a version of this phenomenon for RAHealthCentral: “We have come to the end of another year, and I can’t be the only person who feels it went by in six months instead of 12….