The imperfect trifecta: Depression, Autoimmune/Autoinflammatory Arthritis, & Covid-19

April 5, 2021.Reading time 2 minutes.

I’ve been doing a bunch of series lately. First on COVID-19, then on depression. A fellow blogger, Rick Phillips from RADiabetes reached out and suggested that we should do a Podcast with my nonprofit’s AiArthritis Voice 360 Podcast on depression because he felt there were many patients in our community who were feeling the same […]

How can I assist you?

March 22, 2021.Reading time 14 minutes.

My health has been a roller coaster lately. This past week my disease is basically out of control. I had to break out my cane because walking and balance were an issue. I woke up Friday morning feeling exhausted, but I got out of bed and forced myself to drive to work. I lasted 1.5 […]

Certainly uncertain…

March 17, 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

A year ago the world shut down. I remember sitting in my little office with two students and my high school intern. I was getting annoyed because the intern kept checking her phone. Suddenly she looks up and says, “My mom said we are closed for two weeks!” You can image the reaction of the […]

Grace-less

March 8, 2021.Reading time 15 minutes.

People keep telling me over and over that I need to give myself some grace to deal with my illness, to deal with my grief, to deal with the pandemic, etc. I listen and then immediately ask myself, “What does that mean?” So I looked it up: According to Mashable: Give yourself grace is permission to […]

The road to wellness…

March 3, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

I want to feel better physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Right now, I feel like a dump truck of lousy. I’ve documented my family trauma due to COVID and cancer. I’ve worked on recovering from losing a dog that meant the world to me. Depression has been an issue ever since being diagnosed with my third […]

Not a me too moment…

February 21, 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

Living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for 19 years has taught me one thing. When you tell someone you have Rheumatoid Arthritis all they hear is the word “arthritis” and they say, “Me too!” Then they will go on to explain their osteoarthritis (OA). Now I understand how painful osteoarthritis is. It is not a joke. […]

I would walk 500 miles….

February 17, 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

I saw a post on Facebook. It was from the newspaper from my hometown. It asked if anyone drove a long distance to get a vaccine and if so, why. So I responded that I drove 120 miles to my mom’s house, then another 132 miles roundtrip to get her the vaccine and back. I […]

It’s always one thing or another….

February 3, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

I live in the North Eastern part of the United States and we have had non-stop snow over the past three days. Day one, I did some laundry, sorted some items, and filled a few bags to toss out. After the weekend, I found out I had a traditional “snow day” on Monday, and I […]

Like a Needle in a pandemic…

January 26, 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

I’ll admit that the idea of a COVID19 vaccine made me nervous. I am the type of person who never gets a new product when it first comes out. I always wait until bugs are worked out. My initial plan was to wait it out to see how it goes. Obviously, if you’ve read my […]

22 reasons why…

January 21, 2021.Reading time 12 minutes.

Today was a tough day. It was a typical work day with all the typical hassles that occur, but I felt like I counted down each and every moment until 2:25 pm. You see at 2:25 pm, I was scheduled for my first COVID-19 vaccine. My journey to this moment has been painful for many […]