The Seated View

The Show Us Your Hands! Board of Directors regrets to announce that Eduardo Flores (RA Guy) has resigned from his position as President of the organization. From Eduardo’s idea to create a collage of inflammatory arthritis hands, to him co-founding Show Us Your Hands! with Lene Andersen and Cathy Kramer, and through us becoming an official nonprofit and adding Board members Sallie Ferguson and Jessica Murphy, the last 2 ½ years have been an adventure. Eduardo’s vision and drive were an inspiration to us all. We wish him the best in his future endeavors. Lene Andersen has taken over the role of President. The Board members are working closely together through the transition to ensure the continued successful operation of Show Us Your Hands!  Show Us Your Hands! is dedicated to continuing our work as an international awareness organization, with the mission of uniting and inspiring the inflammatory arthritis community. We carry out this mission through creative community...

When we did the Walk to Fight Arthritis in early June, it was a big experience for a number of reasons. One of these was that I've always wanted to tromp through the woods in the Don Valley. Doing the Walk did not lend itself to stop and photograph the wondrous surroundings. Recently, The Boy and I went back with ample time for a leisurely walk. We started by wandering around the Brickworks' Saturday market and then headed towards the ponds. Where another dream came true. For years, I have admired photographs of dragonflies. I've very much wanted the opportunity to photograph one myself, but I live downtown and the odd time I see one, it flies off before I can get out my camera. Turns out that all I had to do was find a pond. Now I'd like to photograph a dragonfly on a prettier background than pondscum! From a bit further away, the pond is beautiful. After the pond, but before you get to the woods, you walk through a beautiful meadow area, gone wild wit...

Show Us Your Hands! is launching an exciting new community program called the Picture Project. Every month, we ask people who live with inflammatory arthritis to take photos of their hands [involved in] doing something related to the month’s theme and post them on our Facebook page . The inaugural monthly Picture Project was this June on the theme of Living Things. To celebrate this new program, we asked the Show Us Your Hands! Advisory Council to choose their favorite among the submissions. The winner will receive a signed copy of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Managing Treatment, Side Effects and Pain by Lene Andersen, our Director of Community Outreach. We received a wonderful variety of submissions, some of which have been chosen to be included in this month’s Our Hands Can! Community Stories. Read on to the end of the post where we announce the winner. And now we’d like like you to meet a few of the wonderful submissions on the theme of what your hands ca...

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for a signed copy of Why Does Mommy Hurt? Helping Children Cope with the Challenges of Having a Caregiver with Chronic Pain, Fibromyalgia, or Autoimmune Disease , the new book by Elizabeth M. Christy. The winner is Kerry. Congratulations! Send me an email at landers5ATgmailDOTcom with your address and we'll get your book in the mail. My thanks to Elizabeth for her guest post and the book.  If you didn’t win, I encourage you to buy this book — it’s a terrific children’s book that can help you explain not just Fibromyalgia, but also other conditions causing chronic pain, such as RA and migraine. Why Does Mommy Hurt? is only $8.96 in paperback and $3.95 in Kindle ebook ( PDF available directly from Parents with Pain ). You may also want to join Elizabeth’s Parents with Pain network to get support from others in your situation.