Living

Do you ever wonder why being declared disabled while having rheumatoid arthritis seems almost impossible? I know I have. Oh, and to be clear I do not have a good answer...

Do you ever feel like trying to match your symptoms to causality and treatment is a game? Someone has taken the ordered deck of cards, shaken it, then played 52...

Working and cooking in the kitchen with RA can be a bit frustrating sometimes. That’s because pain, stiffness, and swelling in the smaller joints of the hands and wrists can...

Today, I woke up at 10:45 am. Then I woke up again at 11:20 am. Then I also woke up again at 12:15 pm. Yeah, I slept so long I...

Time is a construct. It is malleable and flexible and at the same time, very exacting and rigid. That’s been made ever more clear by having rheumatoid arthritis because, as...

We asked our community of patient leaders to share about their shingles experiences. What topped the list of challenges when dealing with a shingles infection? PAIN! It’s no surprise that...

We all know that along with the physical demands that come with a chronic disease, there are mental/emotional demands as well. I believe that there is a need to declutter...

"We live in a culture that only wants to talk about what's going well. Anything that's not going well is positioned as a detour from the main road. The truth...

During a recent yoga class, the teacher asked us to thank our body and all its parts for what it had helped us do in class and throughout the day...

I received a particularly nasty letter in the mail earlier this month from my insurance company that spelled particularly disastrous news. It stated that based on my current plan guidelines...

For many people, a shingles diagnosis will come as a painful surprise. But about 1 out of every 3 people in the United States will be affected by this common...

Have you ever had the experience of telling your doctor about a symptom or side effect and feeling ignored, challenged, or not believed? I have a feeling that if I...

We are all aware that rheumatoid arthritis can bring along ”friends” such as Sjogren’s, fibromyalgia, diabetes, etc. However, we sometimes forget that rheumatoid arthritis affects our entire body, including our...

There are certain tasks in life, things I both love to do and despise, that are compounded by challenges and changes because I live with rheumatoid arthritis. Shopping has always...

Undoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the face of healthcare as we know it. In the infancy of the pandemic, clinics and doctors’ offices were left to figure out a...

Patient Leader Jacqueline Harmon shared her experience with shingles while living with multiple serious health conditions. By now, I assume nearly everyone with a TV has seen those commercials with...

"You told me once I have a rebel heart...I don't know if that's true" -First Aid Kit As I've written in a previous article, I've always felt a deep connection...

Painfully red, swollen joints are the most apparent annoyance when living with rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. However, did you know many unusual symptoms can be connected to RA? These symptoms may...

Thanks to the volatility of RA joints, balance issues are a sad reality of the disease. It only makes sense that if our joints are swollen, painful, and/or compromised in...

May marks Arthritis Awareness Month! As an "invisible condition," rheumatoid arthritis (RA) can often be misunderstood, especially by those who do not have RA. As a result, this year's theme...