How to Make RA Treatment Decisions With Less Stress
Side-effect risks can be downright terrifying when you’re trying new rheumatoid arthritis therapies. Deeeep breath! In this HealthCentral column, I share how I keep my balance: “The ads make it look easy—you can create a wonderful life of walking on the beach with your beloved and a golden retriever by simply treating your rheumatoid arthritis…
Emergency Preparedness with a Chronic Illness or Disability
Updated April 20, 2024 Big and scary emergencies are thankfully rare occurrences, but when they happen, those of us who live with chronic illness and disability may have challenges that others don’t experience. Part of your emergency plan will be the same as your healthy and able-bodied neighbours, but you will also need to make…
How to Have Happier Holidays With RA
The holiday season is wonderful and the holiday season is really hard when you have a chronic illness. This year, give yourself the gift of better mental health and fewer flare days by keeping this season simple. Learn how it my new column for HealthCentral: “Joy to the world, the holidays are almost here! It…
Rest Is Not a Four-Letter Word
The neverending fatigue of RA and other types of chronic illness permeates our days. k”Get more rest” they say… but how? In my new column on HealthCentral, I look at RA fatigue and innovative ways to get the rest you need so much. “I’m tired, all the way into my aching bones and my sluggish…
How I Use Gratitude to Live Well With RA
Let’s pull no punches: living with rheumatoid arthritis is really difficult. Figuring out how to create a good life nonetheless requires a lot of coping skills. In my new column for HealthCentral, I share what works for me. “Gratitude. It’s a lovely concept, trotted out for the Thanksgiving table and inspiring Instagram posts in beautiful…
RA Will Change Your Life. It Doesn’t Have to Ruin It.
Does rheumatoid arthritis mean you have to scuttle your dreams for the future? I think you know my short answer to this, but… let’s dive into the details in my new column for HealthCentral: “When I was a little girl, I had high-flying dreams and they had very little to do with my juvenile arthritis,…
The Best Thing You Can Say or Do When Someone’s in Pain
Living with chronic pain is incredibly difficult. It’s invisible, which means that in order to be understood, you have to tell people about it and that’s when you hit another barrier. How do you put into words something that is pure sensation and unlike anything the average person has experienced? But on the other side…
#TalkOverRA: Pro Tip to Help Your Rheumatologist Understand Your Pain
One of the defining characteristics of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is pain. It can run the gamut from mild or temporary to severe and chronic, caused by active inflammation or damage to the joints, exacerbated by overdoing it or not moving at all. Living with unpredictable pain is incredibly difficult — because (obviously) it’s deeply uncomfortable,…
Your Must-Watch List of Disability-Friendly Movies
Movies and television reflect our lives, but when they don’t show all of us — or worse, cast other people to play a particular group — it strengthens stereotype and discrimination. In my latest column for HealthCentral, I dive into disability in the movies and add a list of my favourites: “When I watch movies…
COVID Diary: The Kindness of Strangers
We live in strange times in everyday life has become a difficult. COVID-19 has revealed the of the underbelly of a lot of things in our society, but the pandemic has also shown just how wonderful people can be. If you need a reminder of the good in the world, check out my new column…
How to Listen to Your Body When You’re Not on Speaking Terms
One of the hardest things about living with rheumatoid arthritis is listening to your body, yet it is an essential part of breaking the overdoing it-crashing-overdoing it cycle. I wrote about this in my new article for HealthCentral: “I live with an absolute jerk. She bosses me around, every day telling me what I can…
Plan for the Curveball to Live Well with RA
When rheumatoid arthritis (RA) makes everything in your life uncertain, you can count on one thing: any plans you’ve had the audacity to make dispersing in the air as if hit by a magic spell. To paraphrase John Lennon, chronic illness is what happens when you make any plans. And when it happens often enough,…