Stories

I am Colleen Mae Lemkuil and I was diagnosed by Mayo Medical Center in Rochester, MN when I was around 60 as having juvenile arthritis. When I was 25, I...

I am twenty-three, and it has really hit me lately that my childhood is completely over now. I am in no way, shape, or form a child or even a...

Back in January in a post titled "RA Grab Bag Goodies" I related my experience with a Baker's cyst in my right knee that had ruptured and put me on...

I haven’t been able to work since last December. At times, I feel like my working career is over, and I don’t know if I can work anymore; it’s literally...

I had just recovered from three back surgeries due to scoliosis, disc degenerative disease, and a multitude of other issues, none related to RA. I had been very active (100...

I've recently been diagnosed with RA, and I'm still grappling with the news. This isn't my only chronic illness, so adding a new one is quite upsetting. All of the...

I have had RA for 40 years. Started when I was 25. I have had 13 surgeries. Life has been rough, my husband did not understand my illness. I had...

I suspected that something was wrong when I was about 26. I constantly hurt, I had unexplained swelling, and I was so fatigued! To add to things, I was also...

2014 was supposed to be the best year of my life. I was newly married and had a baby on the way, due in April 2014. The day for my...

I hope 3rd times a charm; As some of you have read, I started on gentle arm/shoulder exercises a while back, but ended up with shoulder pain which radiated down...

The concept of "stages of grief" goes back to the late 60's and the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who wrote about them in her book On Death And Dying. She stated...

Hi there, Since I was 43 years old, I have been struggling with RA and fibromyalgia. I had no idea what I had; I simply knew that I was in...

Extreme pain with every movement of my body started me on my RA journey. I absolutely dreaded waking up in the morning because I knew the pain I was going...

The morning after I had injured my knee, I woke up -- unable to get out of bed. I felt sharp pain throughout my body - like pieces of glass...

As a teenager, my skin hurt. No one in my family or their friends had ever heard of this. Of course, this was in the 1970's. Everyone, including my doctor...

In my early 20's I suffered from an eye infection, that wouldn't clear up. The doctors tried different medications to no avail. My sister recommended that I see a new...

I was working with a young woman who was very worldly. We were chatting one day and I mentioned that my eyebrows had been thinning a lot. She told me...

I'm not a multi-tasker. I don't do anything in a hurry. I prefer a leisurely stroll over a sprint. That my husband will simultaneously wash dishes, cook a meal, and...

There is a sort of sadness one feels when you are doing something for the last time. A sadness so often lacking because we often don’t recognize the last. There...

Irony. Expected results being the opposite of what is expected. Sometimes serious, often humorous. At least that’s my take on it. Irony is when someone who has a needle phobia...