Author: asmyjointsturn

Kelly holds masters degrees in both Special Education and Speech-Language Pathology. She works full-time as a speech-language pathologist in both a public school setting and as an adjunct faculty member at a university, in Philadelphia, PA. She specializes in both autism and augmentative/alternative communication and took her skills to Uganda, Africa to start a special needs program for disabled children living in an orphanage in 2011. Kelly began experiencing symptoms of autoimmune arthritis in 1984 (while in her teens) but wasn’t officially diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis until 2001. Her first diagnosis was Sjogren’s syndrome. Eventually her diagnosis was changed to sero-negative RA and now Polyarticular Spondlyoarthropathy. She also manages thyroid disease (resulting from Graves Disease), fibromyalgia, renin-deficient hypertension, and disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis (DSAP) on a daily basis. Kelly connected with other autoimmune arthritis patients via social media in 2008. She began volunteering with the “Buckle Me UP! Movement”, which evolved into the International Autoimmune Arthritis Movement (IAAM) beginning in 2009. Then became a cofounder of IFAA in 2013. She has represented the ACR on Capitol Hill as an Advocate for Arthritis, was a finalist in Wego Health’s Health Activist Hero awards in 2014, and speaks at various healthcare conferences as a patient advocate in the Philadelphia area.

To be or not to be….disabled.

January 23, 2020.Reading time 5 minutes.

I am active in the patient community so I know a lot of people who are on disability due to chronic illness. Their age, gender and race all vary, but the one thing they have in common? The majority of them wish they could still work. The majority of them are dirt poor, especially if […]

Who am I??

January 15, 2020.Reading time 10 minutes.

I was recently interviewed for a project. I was asked to describe myself. So I talked about my career as a speech language pathologist, educator, patient, patient advocate, and writer. I described my life as a single woman living with multiple chronic illnesses and how I take care of a dog with more chronic illnesses […]

This is, I mean Hindsight is 20/20…

January 2, 2020.Reading time 3 minutes.

I’ve documented pretty clearly that my 2019 was for all intents and purposes, craptastic. As a result, I’ve become a person that I don’t recognize in the mirror. I’m not big on making New Year Goals. I never keep them. What I am going to do is focus on being positive and making small positive […]

Fa la la la la lazy…..

December 22, 2019.Reading time 13 minutes.

Christmas is in 4 days. Are my gifts wrapped? No. Am I packed? No. My decorations are minimal….and so is my Christmas spirit. My 2019 was extra crappy. Here is a little recap…. January: I started the year with a broken foot/non-weight bearing. On January 2, my cat tripped me and I ended up tearing […]

A blue Christmas…

December 14, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Today I have been feeling a bit blue. The combination of the holidays, my finances, my health, and Georgia’s health has me feeling really down. Losing a loved one earlier this year has also torn at my heart for months. Things just keep piling up. Lately, it seems like no matter what I do, I […]

Chronic pet lovers…

December 10, 2019.Reading time 19 minutes.

I was recently asked to have Georgia (my dog) co-host The International Foundation for Autoimmune & Autoinflammatory Arthritis’s AiArthritis Voices 360 podcast. The reason being, we wanted to discuss how important pets are to people living with chronic illness. Georgia getting ready for her debut! I’ve always been an animal lover and growing up, my […]

Making Lemonade with Georgia Grace by Kelly Conway

November 23, 2019.Reading time 1 minute.

When life gives you lemons, you have to make a choice: you can choose to remain bitter or you can add something to make that lemon sweeter. When Kelly brought her puppy Georgia Grace home, she could never have predicted all the medical emergencies they would endure together. Their love for each other was what […]

Voices matter…

November 20, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

I cofounded the International Foundation for Autoimmune & Autoinflammatory Arthritis (IFAA) in 2013 with three fellow patients Tiffany Westrich-Robertson, Tami Brown, and Amanda John. Our mission has always been to use our voices to impact education, awareness, and research. We’ve grown and evolved over the years, but we always held fast to the idea that our […]

I am an impatient patient…

November 17, 2019.Reading time 6 minutes.

The past few weeks, I’ve been documenting my battle with an upper respiratory virus/sinus infection/laryngitis, etc. Three weeks in, and I’m still not well. I feel like I may have turned a corner because my voice is a tad bit better. I’m still on antibiotics, but off of prednisone. Thankfully, sleep is a bit easier […]

Getting sick, while being sick…

November 10, 2019.Reading time 3 minutes.

Two weeks ago, I started with a dry cough. After my bout with pneumonia, I watched it closely. By the middle of the week, I felt wrecked. Body aches, stuffy nose, sore throat, ear ache, etc. I called my doctor but they had no appointments until the following day. My goal was to return to […]