Blog Articles About rheumatoid arthritis

Real RA: Side Effects of the Miracle

Yesterday, as I moved down the street with the first vague sense of woozy pressure building in my sinuses, it came to me that the next post in my Real RA series should be a look at the cost of the miracle. And by the miracle, I mean Humira and everything good and beneficial it…

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Like Snow: 13 New Names for Different Types of Pain

Updated November 21, 2021 Most people have an only occasional experience with pain and as the language of a culture is shaped by the majority experience, our world lacks descriptors of pain beyond the basic – burning, stabbing and not much else. Those of us who live with chronic pain know that it is a multifaceted creature. Legend…

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Low send over a field of sunflowers. Text in the title graphic: "Like Me: Finding My RA Community and Why It Matters." Logo for The Seated View

Like Me: Finding My RA Community and Why It Matters

Updated November 12, 2022. Being different is both external and internal. Being the only person who looks a certain way set you apart in a group, designates you as Other. Even when the members of the group are your friends, there is something that makes you feel set apart. Finding your community, the people who…

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When your life seems full of chaos and disaster, sometimes all it takes is one moment to bring you out of it.

Calamity Jane Not So Calamitous: My Ongoing Biologics Miracle

Updated May 5, 2021 When your life seems out-of-control, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and every day disasters combining to create chaos, sometimes all it takes is one moment to bring you out of it. A brief synopsis: it started with my phone crapping out, bringing with it a sort of domino effect of calamities worthy of…

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Dental Adventures with RA: In Which an Extraction Goes Awry

Updated June 11, 2022 Having rheumatoid arthritis isn’t just about having arthritis. Having arthritis has ripples. There are the ripples caused by medication — high blood pressure (courtesy of Vioxx), wrecked GI system (courtesy of every medication I’ve ever been on) – and then there’s things like teeth. The jaw being a joint,when inflammation has…

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Everything

Updated June 21, 2020 In December of 2004, I looked into the abyss and the abyss looked back. It’s hard to write about this — doing so with any emotional truth means going back to a place I’d rather never feel again — but there’s something I’ve wanted to say for a long time and…

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Rated PG for Nudity: Diving Deeper Into My Story

Updated September 26. 2024 I’ve been thinking a lot about getting naked lately. Not the regular kind of unclothed – sorry to anyone who’d started drooling and to those of you who covered your eyes, you can read on without trepidation. I’m talking about the kind of naked that shows the real you – or…

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