Living

Pain science has come a long way. When I first was diagnosed with JRA in 1971, pain researchers weren’t all convinced that young children felt pain - at least, not...

Although I experienced chronic pain with my son 4 years ago, at the time I had no diagnosis to explain my pain. In fact, my pain had no voice at...

Recently, I moved across the country for school. I basically packed up my life and moved. A cross-country move, as expected, was stressful and complicated. Surprisingly, though, I did not...

'Tis the season for giving thanks! While these past 2 weird years have been certainly - well- weird, there are still plenty of things for which to express gratitude. I'm...

Living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) means that I have been forced to make my life adaptable - whether I’m at home or away. I’ve thought a lot about how my...

Unfortunately, inflammation is my superpower. It is unfortunate because I’m both very good at creating inflammation and, yet, haven’t found a useful purpose for this superpower. In the last couple...

From the time I was 8 years old, my Christmas memories were of my mother's constant fight to live. My mother suffered from Type 1 diabetes. I say suffered because...

So, you probably don’t know this since I don’t write about it much, but my husband is a man for which I will sing praises until the end of time...

Some people believe that accepting and moving forward with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis may lead to surrendering to it as well. I am not one of those people. I think that...

When I was a kid, Saturday morning was my jam. And my favorite part of the morning was watching Bugs Bunny on the Looney Tunes hour of Saturday morning cartoons...

Rheumatoid arthritis affects every aspect of a person’s life. It affects a person physically, socially, and mentally. It also impacts their ability to perform everyday activities, work, and go to...

The holidays. There is nary a more stressful time when it comes to dealing with people and as much as I love "people," I also say, "Ugh, have you met...

I ran across an old article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) titled the “Effects of Writing About Stressful Experiences on Symptom Reduction in Patients with Asthma or...

Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that vitamin D supplementation increases a person's risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Research shows that vitamin D has many...

There's a lot of grief in having rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We know the pain that RA causes (achy joints, low-grade fevers, tons of co-morbidities, etc.), but what are the elements...

After my diagnosis with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (now juvenile idiopathic arthritis) as a child, I have made regular visits to the ophthalmologist to get my eyes checked. At the time...

Insurance. It’s a necessary evil when living with rheumatoid arthritis and chronic illness and many of us spend an inordinate amount of time doing so. Prior approvals, EOBs, authorizations, co-pays...

The RheumatoidArthritis.net community forum is an insightful resource filled with thoughtful questions, tips, and perspectives. Each month we are sharing 5 forum discussions we think deserve extra attention. Explore the...

I’ve written a few articles about the lovely compassion of people in the face of my disability and I have another one for you! This summer 2021, I returned to...

While I live with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), I also manage Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory disease of the intestines. In fact, for many years, my RA symptoms were overshadowed by...