RA and Osteoporosis: Preventing and Managing Thinning Bones
The much-delayed osteoporosis post on MyRACentral is finally done: “Rheumatoid arthritis.Steroids.Sedentary lifestyle.Being low on vitamin D. All are risk factors for developing osteoporosis. Although being a postmenopausal woman tends to be one of the more familiar risk factors, men, children and young adults are vulnerable, too. If you feel as if a heavy sack of…
Independent Living with RA
The theme for July at MyRACentral is independence: “The key in the door wakes me and I listen as my attendant putters around in the kitchen, pouring juice and getting a plate, letting me wake up slowly. She pushes my wheelchair into my bedroom, laughing as Lucy the cat refuses to get off the seat…
Pride Goeth
My latest MyRACentral post ponders the eternal question of why I can’t learn to stop before I hurt myself: “It was as inevitable as the tides, the sun rising in the east and the Toronto Maple Leafs getting nowhere near the Stanley Cup finals.” The rest of the post is here.
Love Among the Ruins
This week on MyRACentral, I write about finding love when you live with a chronic illness: “When I was a teenager, I asked my mother if I’d ever find love. My friends were dating, but I’d never met a boy who could see me instead of the packaging I came in – my rheumatoid arthritis…
Precautionary Nervous Breakdowns
This week on MyRACentral, I write about scaring yourself to stay safe: “It was December 27 and I was waiting to hear if I had skin cancer.” You can read the rest here.
Staying Sane
Sanity and the preservation thereof is the topic of this week’s post on MyRACentral: “Waking up in pain. Going to bed in pain. Never knowing if tomorrow’s going to be the day it comes back with such force that your life is shattered, sidelined again while you put everything on hold, while you find a…
Juvenile Arthritis: The Ultimate Teen Guide – A Review & Interview with Kelly Rouba
We’re doing something new on MyRACentral – this week, we launched an area on the site for teens and young adults living with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (when I first got it 40+ years ago, it was called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis). There isn’t a lot of information and meeting places for that age group out there…
Staying Safe
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the US (in Canada, it’s in May), so my latest post is about staying safe when you live with physical limitations: “The official stats say that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 33 men have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, but that just…
Taking the Reins
My new post for MyRACentral is up: “Compliance. Following doctor’s orders. The words make my teeth itch and not just because in addition to rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia, I have a chronic case of you’re-not-the-boss-of-me-itis.” The rest is here.
Death & Life
This month on MyRACentral, we talk about death and dying, the unmentionable: “Twice, rheumatoid arthritis has tried to kill me. I was 12, almost 13, the first time, when it went systemic and starting attacking my heart and my spleen and there was a bad case of pneumonia, as well. I don’t remember much, just…
The War on Us
This week on MyRACentral, I rant: “When prescribed and used correctly, one quarter of one percent of people taking opioids become addicted. In some state, you can get arrested if your opioids are not in their original prescription containers (nevermind that such containers may be hard to open for people living with chronic pain). And…
The Love that Gets Us Through
Musing about love in my latest MyRACentral post: “Love is all you need. – The Beatles Comfort. It can be hard to come by in the times when pain has invaded your body, occupying it like a foreign army. It can make you feel excruciatingly alone, because pain is, at its root, something you cannot…