Reinventing Yourself with RA
This week on HealthCentral, I riff on how Ra can prompt your to seek renewal and reinventing yourself: “RA can be a gift. When I say that, people usually look at me as if I’ve grown another head. How can this chronic autoimmune disease that frequently and randomly takes over your life be a positive…
Pain, Touch and RA
This month on HealthCentral, we’re writing about relationships. My contribution is a post on the importance of touch and what you can do to meet your need for physical contact when you hurt (yes, that includes sex): “Touch. We know it’s important to babies and children, but once we are grown, we pay less attention…
Rheumatoid Awareness Day: An Interview with Kelly Young
This week on HealthCentral, I wrote about a new initiative for raising awarneess about RA: “May’s Arthritis Awareness Month covers more than 100 different types of arthritis. October 12 is World Arthritis Day. May 10 is World Lupus Day. May 12 is Fibromyalgia Awareness Day. The first Saturday after May 1 is World Ankylosing Spondylitis…
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…
RA and the Holidays: Dialing Down the Stress
It’s been a loooong week and somehow, the blog got neglected. Next week will be better (I hope). One of my distractions was a post for HealthCentral about how to keep from getting too overwhelmed this season: “The holidays are here, the time that tradition kicks in more firmly than any other time of year….
FDA Approves Xeljanz (tofacitinib) to Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis
Really great news in RA treatment! I wrote about the new drug in more detail on HealthCentral: “Last week, the FDA approved a new drug to treat moderate to severe RA. Pfizer’s Xeljanz – brand-name tofacitinib – is the first in a new class of medications called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors. It is also the…
Fuzzy Brains: RA, Pain and Cognitive Issues
Earlier this week, I had a medication-related senior moment so profound that it was the driving force behind the idea to write today’s HeakthCentral post. Write what you know, right? “In 2004, I was in one of the worst flares of my life, the pain so intense and omnipresent it cast a shadow over everything….
World Arthritis Day: Global Awareness and You
Tomorrow is World Arthritis Day and all sorts of cools things are happening. I wrote about some of them on HealthCentral: “You are not alone. All over the world, millions of people live with arthritis. This Friday, October 12, is World Arthritis Day – a time for all of us to get together and make…
Using Technology to Improve Your Quality of Life: Apps for Arthritis and Chronic Pain
My last post for HealthCentral’s Pain Awareness Month is about two new apps for people with chronic pain and arthritis. Very cool! “One of the most frustrating aspects of living with RA and chronic pain is the unpredictable nature of these conditions. Keeping track of your symptoms, activities, triggers and treatment can help you identify…
Myths About Opiates and Addiction Affect Pain Management
This week, I wrote another post for HealthCentral’s theme of living with pain for Pain Awareness Month. Since it is also National Recovery Month, I combined the two topics: “You have the right to effective pain management. In fact, two years ago, the International Pain Summit in Montréal declared that it is a human right…
5 Essentials to Coping with the Pain of RA
September is Pain Awareness Month in the US and HealthCentral writers are covering topics related to living with pain. This week, my contribution is about my go-to tricks to cope: “Last week, I cried in the shower again. It’s been a long time since the pain was so bad that my only response upon waking…
Bullying and Juvenile Arthritis: A Memory of Childhood
Writers across many HealthCentral sites are doing posts related to the theme of back-to-school. We’re interpreting it widely, discussing not just going back to school, but also educting kids about various medical conditions. My contribution was to write about bullying of kids with chronic illnesses froma personal point of view: “I flew across the schoolyard,…