The Best Way to Achieve Rheumatoid Arthritis Remission and Barriers to Its Use
Updated May 3, 2020 It is now possible for many people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) to go into remission. This in and of itself is mind-boggling to me. I grew up during a time when there were no treatments, and when the inevitable of progression lead to severe disability, wheelchair use, and often early…
Weight Gain and Biologics: The Battle No One Talks About
Updated May 20, 2021 Several medications for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can lead to weight changes. Steroids is well-known for it, but if you mention Biologics and weight gain, many rheumatologists will tell you there isn’t a link. Many people in the community disagree, saying their lived experience says different and I’m one of them. I…
11 Tips for Keeping Your Teeth Healthy with Rheumatoid Arthritis
Updated May 3, 2020 Taking care of your teeth is important at any time, but especially with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA inflammation can wreak havoc on many parts of the body, including your teeth and gums. This makes it even more important to take good care of your teeth, but pain and problems with mobility…
Becoming Bionic: A Story from the Dark Ages of Rheumatology
Updated May 19, 2020 When I was 16, I had both my hips replaced. When I talk about it, I usually focus on the way they liberated me from more than two years of lying in a hospital bed. They enabled me to sit in a power wheelchair and to go home. I don’t talk about…
4 Stress Busters for Writers with a Chronic Illness
Updated September 28, 2021 There are distinct benefits to working for yourself and even more benefits to having an office in your home. The commute is ideal, the dress code very relaxed, and you can set your own hours. This is fantastic when you have a chronic illness. There are also drawbacks — you’re the boss…
Sex and RA: Asking for Help with a Delicate Issue
Updates June 12, 2020 We all have at least one. Your nemesis, if you will. That one thing that you can’t do because of your chronic illness or disability. Well, of course there are probably more than one, but the others may not bother you is much. Or maybe you found a way around it….
New Ebook – 7 Facets: A Meditation on Pain
Pain is a funny thing. Not just to live with (in which case it’s not always very funny), but in terms of the myths and the silence surrounding it. Talking about pain is uncomfortable, especially for those who don’t have it. Pain is hard to understand. You can’t measure it, it’s difficult to describe and…
What Okinawa’s 80% and Mary Kay Taught Me about Writing with Chronic Illness
Updated September 28, 2021 I ran out of spoons around the middle of June. Then I spent the next six weeks teetering on the line between having just a few and being deep in energy overdraft, while mentally (and repeatedly) chanting just hold on until August 1 and not quite understanding why I was flaring…
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…
Nothing More than Feelings: How Doctors Minimize RA Reality
Updated August 30, 2020 Catastrophizing is a popular concept in medicine, particularly when dealing with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic pain. You’ll find endless studies and articles on the concept, described as negative self statements, feelings or coping strategies. For instance, someone saying “this is the worst pain I’ve ever had” or “what if I can’t…
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…
Independence with RA and Disability: Reachers
One of the biggest frustrations of living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and disability is how it eats away and that your independence. Whether it’s the inability to open a jar, or needing others to pick up an item you dropped on the floor, the gradual erosion of independence is like the death of a thousand…