Happy Wednesday, everyone!
Exciting news: the article I wrote recently for the fantastic Spring.st website got published today! It’s an essay about what it’s like trying to work while having a chronic illness. Check it out!
“What It’s Like to Juggle a Full-Time Illness and a Full-Time Career”
Hope you like it! :)
Happy April! It’s APRIL already? How did this happen? Life moves too fast sometimes (when you’re busy running to medical appointments every other day, ha).
Well anyway, I’m happy that the weather is starting to get nicer and that Spring is approaching (hopefully). I’m also happy to be starting this little 30-day project for the month of April: 30 Days with RA.
I wrote an article about it recently for RheumatoidArthritis.net (the link above), which can give you a better, more-detailed explanation of the project, if you’re interested.
Happy 2017 everyone!
I know I haven’t updated this blog in seemingly forever. Sincere apologies (I’m embarrassed about this)! 2016 was one of the most challenging years I’ve ever experienced, I’d argue, and it used up a lot of my time, energy, and health. I know I’m being vague here, but I’ll explain more in following posts. I’m really glad that a new year is finally here and I hope it will be happy and healthy for everyone!
That said, here’s a recently published article of mine on rheumatoidarthritis.net about the issue of rising and unaffordable out-of-pocket costs for people who currently have health insurance. I know I’m not alone is having to deal with this issue.
“Health Insurance & RA: Dangerously Uncovered”
I’ve lived most of my adult life being “dangerously uncovered” even while having health insurance. I know that the fate of our country’s health insurance is on shaky ground right now; it will be interesting (and hopefully not alarming) to see what happens in the near future with the Affordable Care Act and the Trump administration.
Recently published on rheumatoidarthritis.net — my article on Virginia Woolf’s essay “On Being Ill.”
Virginia Woolf herself suffered from chronic illness for the majority of her life–until her death in 1941.
Yesterday I had my first iron IV infusion since last December because my hematology labs are still abnormal; my hemoglobin is 10-something. I’ve been dealing with anemia or borderline anemia ever since my RA diagnosis 18 years ago, I think. During all of those years I knew my anemia was somehow related to RA, but it’s not until just recently that I started doing some research on it.
Here’s a recent article I wrote for rheumatoidarthritis.net about the anemia-RA connection.
I’m willing to bet that there are a lot of other people out there with RA who also struggle with anemia. Is your fatigue from your RA and pain or could it be from low iron levels? Good question! :)
Aaaand…I’m recently on Humira. Again. Xeljanz (as well as Actemra) failed me. Last Friday I gave myself my fourth injection, which now equals two months of being on Humira. Unfortunately, maddeningly, I’m still taking prednisone and I’m still having pain and swelling in my fingers and feet and ankles. I’m not happy about this. Actually, I’m trying hard to not be scared to death about it. Are the anti-TNFs no longer working? Will anything work?! Will I ever get off prednisone?
Here’s another update I wrote for RheumatoidArthritis.net about what’s been going on in my RA life, and specifically about the recent switch back to Humira:
My body is really frustrating me lately. In fact, I kind of hate it. I know that’s not a great attitude to have and being angry and pessimistic will not make things better. It’s really hard though when you feel like you’re playing this never-ending game of musical chairs or “musical drugs.” But it doesn’t sound much like music to me–more like the unbearable shrieking sound of “WE’RE NOT GOING TO HELP YOU!” screaming over and over in my head.
Come on, Humira. Get moving and do what you’re supposed to do, please. Please.
Here’s an article of mine that was recently published on rheumatoidarthritis.net: “Smaller Phones, Less Pain: the new iPhone SE”
The article is my take on what has been the seemingly growing trend of bigger and bigger smart phones and how that affects people with RA. Basically, the larger phones hurt my hands, so I’m ecstatic to discover that Apple has a new SMALLER iPhone available now. I’m an Apple person and I want to stick with iPhones (for now), so this is great news.
However, I recently got a comment on the article from someone disagreeing with me on my opinion of smaller smart phones being better for RA. She made some good, interesting points that I’m going to respond to right now, actually! What do you think?
