By Lene Andersen. Health care writer, RA and disability advocate, wheelchair user and camera nut. Author of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Managing Treatment, Side Effects and Pain
Chronic Christmas on Fashionably Ill
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I was thrilled when Jessica Gimeno of Fashionably Ill asked me for an interview. We talked about my story, Chronic Christmas, and I shared three tips to survive the holidays with "Today, I am interviewing Lene Andersen, author of Chronic Christmas: Surviving the Holidays with a Chronic Illness (paperback and kindle versions available).
The holidays can be stressful for anyone but they can be especially
stressful for people with chronic illness. Lene Andersen’s blog, The Seated View,
is chalk full of inspiration and practical advice you can use all year
round. Lene is 54-years old but says she feels like she’s only 42!
Jessica Gimeno: What is your official diagnosis and when were you diagnosed? Lene Andersen: I was diagnosed with juvenile arthritis when I was nine years old, although the symptoms started five years prior to that. I also have migraines which started in my teens, and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 12 years ago.
Lene Andersen, author of Chronic ChristmasJG: How long have you been living with illness?LA: I’m coming up on half a century. It’s a very long time to live
with pain and illness, but it also has a positive aspect. This lifetime
of chronic illness has given me a lot of experience that I can use to
help others in the same situation."
The Seated View has moved . I am still bringing you the information and support you need to live a better life with RA and chronic illness, just on another site. I'd love for you to visit my new website ! - Lene If you want to leave a comment or question about weight gain, RA, and Biologics and are looking for answers or feedback, please jump to this post on my new site . It has the capability for direct replies, this site does not. You can also reach me at leneATyourlifewithraDOTcom. - Thanks, Lene I’ve known from the beginning that Biologics can affect your weight. When I was on Enbrel, I couldn’t keep weight on, and looked anorexic despite eating like a horse. When I switched to Humira, I started gaining weight. I, who had never before spent much time past a size 6, became a 10. After years of being literally skin and bones, it suited me just fine. And then the gaining continued, until finally settling around a weight that requires a 16 pant. Never havin...
Really exciting news! We're getting much closer to finding the cause of RA: "A new study has found a direct link between specific bacteria in the gut and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) -- an exciting discovery that could bring us closer to understanding the cause or causes of RA. Micro bacteria in the gut Each of us has a collection of microbacteria in our guts. The collection, which weighs roughly three pounds in an adult, is called the microbiome and is made up of about 1,000 different bacterium species. Microbacteria play an important role in our health: some protect us against illness, while others possibly play a role in the development of certain illnesses. Previous research has implicated certain specific microbacteria as being associated with RA , but the exact role and dynamic was not known." Find out more about this study and its implications in my HealthCentral post.
So, where was I…? The last time I posted, I had the flu and was pretty miserable. It was the precursor to a roller coaster ride into a very dark place. The flu turned into pneumonia, which sent me to the hospital in the middle of March. There was a trip to the ER, admitted into isolation, and then to the ICU with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS — only click on that link if you enjoy chills going up and down your spine). Interestingly, this may have had more to do with my asthma than my being immunosuppressed. Anyway, I was put in an induced coma on a ventilator, and had an emergency tracheostomy . Photo credit: Ken Allen Soon after, I came as close as it is possible to dying, and actually flatlined for 10 seconds during another nerve-racking event. We figure that officially makes me a zombie. What? Too soon? I remember none of it. Well, that’s not entirely true. There is a blank space between the several days before I went to the ER an...
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