I’m angry

August 10, 2021.Reading time 7 minutes.

I am very angry and have been for a very long time. I’m angry that in my dogs final days I spent more than 75% of the time sitting in the car waiting for her instead of being able to hold and comfort her due to COVId-19. I’m grateful I was able to hold her […]

it’s been a minute…

August 5, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

Hello! Remember me? I used to blog weekly about my life with rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, Graves Disease, and more recently depression. I took an unexpected break. I decided for the first time in 30 years the I would not work this summer. It’s going to hurt me financially, but my mind and body needed a […]

Welcome, why don’t you stay a while…

May 7, 2021.Reading time 6 minutes.

Good news. I got good news. I feel like all I’ve written about lately is bad news. Honestly, getting good news is jarring after all this time.. Since January, I decided I needed to get healthier. Let me clarify, I needed to fix chronic medical issues so I could heal before trying to get healthy. […]

April showers…..

April 20, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

I was determined to write about something that didn’t have to do with depression. I couldn’t do it. I lost so much in 2020, that somedays it feels unimaginable that I will be able to pull myself out. Ironically, social media has “memories” that pop up on your feed that highlight things that happened in […]

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. […]