Living

When I was first prescribed a biologic administered via infusion, I felt overwhelmed. I had so many questions and, nowhere could I find all of the answers in one place...

Can I trust my body? It's something that I ask myself almost every day. Why, you might ask? Because realistically my body has turned against me. It was healthy one...

Like most people, I’m just trying to get through the pandemic crisis (mostly) intact. I expect we’ll all be changed, we’ll all have to recover in various ways, and the...

Here is my premise. We need uncertainty for medical professionals to get our diagnosis right and, even when they have it right, we need them to be uncertain going forward. Without...

It doesn’t surprise many people when they learn that I change medications frequently. I’m a little flakey and I like fast results. Barring the last few years, I was never...

Old. Over the hill. Out of date. Starting to rot... Call it what you will but, as my grandfather said, getting old isn’t for the faint of heart. The thing...

As a kid, I loved to watch the show "Let’s Make a Deal" because the surprise aspect of it was very intriguing to me. Contestants were asked to select, sight unseen...

*Update: As of Wednesday, April 28, 2021, the Chronic Dry Eye In America survey is now closed and will not be reopened. It is estimated that more than 16 million...

I used to think I couldn’t sleep because I had too much on my mind. Then, I thought I couldn’t sleep because of how much my knees hurt. To confuse...

Here I am again. Feeling the effects of my body trying to adjust to a medication, and it’s not fun. I’m reminding myself that my bad mood is just temporary...

Organization is a big thing for me. Because of the mixture of rampant brain fog and medication side effects, my memory is not particularly reliable anymore. I tend to forget...

In May 2019, I took my first injection of Humira. It was the first time I had been on a biologic for treatment of my rheumatoid arthritis. Previously, I had...

It was about this time last year that I had one of the worst sicknesses that I’ve ever experienced: a combo of strep throat and tonsillitis. My tonsillitis were so...

For some, prednisone is a miracle medication. For others, it is the slingshot that has launched them down a course in their life that they will never recover from. But...

As an RA patient who also lives with a GI condition called Crohn’s disease, I am unfortunately too educated and experienced when it comes to dealing with nausea, upset stomach...

I remember the occasion very clearly when osteoarthritis made itself known beyond a reasonable doubt. In 2010, I decided to paint my home music studio a fun combination of light...

According to the Mayo Clinic, osteoporosis “causes bones to become brittle and weak” because “the formation of new bone does not keep up with the loss of old bone.” Bones...

My general stance on the pandemic: things are challenging for everyone and we are all just trying to figure it out. So when my local pool re-opened without any plans...

Well, that’s it; the title says it all. Thanks for coming, please leave your praise in the comment section below! Ha! There’s more, of course, which you probably already knew...

Since I was diagnosed at age two more than 40 years ago, the condition has changed names (from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis to juvenile idiopathic arthritis), the treatments have greatly improved...