The Seated View

Today is the last day of #RABlog Week . Things have been crazy busy, so I haven't been able to do another post. I recommend you hop on over to the event page on Rick's website to check out the many amazing submissions. I certainly plan to do this over the next few days.

Years ago, I was away from the job market for 10 years. A change in government meant I lost the job I had and it was very hard to find something else. After the big flare, my body prevented me from finding something else. And then I found something that was perfect for me, both in terms of what I wanted to do, and in terms of accommodating my limitations. In this week's post for HealthCentral, I share tips on how to get back to work with chronic illness. "There are many reasons why a person with chronic illness may be absent from the workplace. It could be related to the chronic illness, or maybe to another life event, such as the birth of a child or taking care of a relative. Whatever the reason, now’s the time to get back to work. But how do you do that after an extended absence? My story I lost a much-loved job in equal opportunity — a change in government had deemphasized the type of work I did, and my contract wasn’t renewed. I couldn’t find work for a ve...

Today’s #RABlog Week prompt is Biologics can be scary . This is true and it has led to a lot of misperceptions about these kinds of medications. My goal today is to bust some myths about Biologics. Settle in with a cup of tea. To do this subject justice, I had to go a bit long. Your doctor has talked to you about starting a biologic for your rheumatoid arthritis (RA), so you do the natural thing for anyone with an Internet connection: you ask Google. Maybe you also ask other people you know who have RA. And that’s when you see and hear some comments that scare the crap out of you. Such as:   “Don’t take those drugs, they are poison.” "I’d never put that in my body. I’m going all natural.” “I went all natural and I’m in remission.”   I believe these types of comments reflect a lack of understanding of not just the Biologics, but the disease they treat.   A serious solution   I’m not going to lie to you. Biologics are a serious medication. The...

This week, I’ll be participating in RABlog Week, posting on particular prompts that were decided by a community survey. Learn more about RABlog Week and how you can participate. You can also follow the #RABlog Week hashtag on Twitter. This year is my 50 th anniversary of living with RA. Well, technically juvenile idiopathic arthritis, but my experience of it has been close enough to RA, especially as an adult, that this is the name I use for what I have. Today’s prompt is about starting stories. I’ve told my story often, so I’m going to summarize it very briefly and then go off on a bit of a different interpretation. If you want to learn more about my journey with this illness, one of the best places to do so is my Live Bold feature on HealthCentral . I was four years old when I felt the first symptoms, my left ankle swelling hugely. I was nine when I got my diagnosis, 12 when a systemic flare almost killed me, and 16 when I got my hips replaced, enabling...