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The Losses: 1
Not all journeys begin expectedly.I knew it was bad in the first seconds I laid eyes on it. There was nofetal pole, no heartbeat. Nothing. A shock clenched my stomach. I was supposed to be at 10...
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The Losses: 2
Say good morning to your new life.This story can't be told quickly. It isn't defined in a flash like my miscarriage. This was longer, a trial of endurance. It started as my miscarriage ended. I woke up...
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The Losses: 2, part II
Christmas and New Year's gifted me with increasing pain and fatigue. It was my first Christmas away from my family with my mother-in-law and her husband in rural Virginia. The drive south was...
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The Losses: 3
I met her when I was eight years old. She was tall, dark, beautiful, and her voice could have passed for RuPaul's. I loved it when she said my name. She consistently mispronounced it, and I never...
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The Losses: 4
February lost me in a fog. My emotional roulette wheel was spinning, and its favorite emotion was denial."Oh goody, you have more unsolicited advice for me? Great. I'm going to go crawl under this rock...
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Be a Warrior!
If you haven't seen Kelly Young's fierce website, you're missing a wealth of medical and research information regarding rheumatoid arthritis. Her most recent post asks for YOUR help. The Rheumatoid...
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Denial
This isn't advice about reframing your diagnosis so it seems less shitty. This is about you accepting the fact you have a chronic illness.Read more »
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The Game You Will Always Lose
Welcome to the Casino of Chronic Illness!Comparisons are a natural human tendency. We all want to know how we measure up to the next guy. They also help us make sense of our world; which coffee is...
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The Game You Will Always Lose: Part 2
Did you pick a winner from the RA poker table?It's time for our players to reveal their cards:*For more than one of the women, insurance coverage proved to be a huge obstacle. * Many struggled with...
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6 Little Joys
As I've accepted my diagnosis, I've begun to appreciate the little moments that reside inside the stillness of the day (they come in surprisingly filling slivers). Sampling the wee caloric morsels can...
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The Secret to Curing Your Rheumatoid Arthritis!
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul... What we wouldn't do for a magic bullet, the newest pill or folk remedy to cure the aches, pains, and stress brought on by a disease we didn't...
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Don't Ask This Question
"Can I pimp out your cane?" The familiar question is posed by a 9-year-old. Sigh. It isn't just a youthful wish. People are predictable in their desire to improve my cane's appearance. The building...
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Curiosity Killed the Cat: Painful Questions
I have always been fascinated by anatomy. In high school A & P we learned about body systems, the way biological creatures are constructed, their parts fitting together in an impossible and organic...
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Still Here
I'm here. Still breathing. Alive, and feeling a bit better, and perhaps a little guilty for it. Seems silly to feel that way, I should be celebrating I don't have to crawl to the bathroom in the...
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Have you had your cards read?
Have you ever had your tarot read? My husband and I got the mystic itch and paid twenty bucks to attend a psychic fair a few weeks ago. Mr. Sunshine and I were ushered to a small roped-off area of the...
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Ch-ch-ch-changes
It's time to celebrate the birth of a new year! Dig up your slumbering and buried Januaries past; what promises did you make and break? Which infants' cries did you neglect as you plodded through...
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The Etiquette of RA
A coworker of my husband's lives with severe rheumatoid arthritis. She was recently diagnosed with stage III lymphoma. She blames Humira; I am on weekly shots of the stuff. She has taken it upon...
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Avoiding Eeyore
"I know your mind went right to Diane, she died because of RA but that doesn't mean you will." Read more »
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Ch-ch-ch-changes Update
Mr. Sunshine demonstrates what I've lost. In January I wrote about honoring yourself. I hope some of you took that as a challenge. I'd love to hear what you've been doing for yourself. I'd begun the...
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Does your illness define you?
As I added chemotherapy in the form of Methotrexate to my drug cocktail last July, I watched my nails break off, my hair thin out, and bore witness to an awful inability to keep food down. My RA also...
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