Partial Truth

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weight Gain and Biologics: The Battle of the Pudge

Image
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 having been thi
Read more

Real RA: It's Not Just About the Jar

    The drug commercials like to show couples walking on the beach with a dog (it's always a beach with a dog), but real RA is not like that. The image of remission is a return to sparkling health with no lasting effects, but real RA is not like that. This is the first in new series of posts about the ways RA affects your life, the unvarnished version.   Last week, Kelly over at RA Warrior tweeted a link to a post about the silly things people with RA say . It’s a brilliant list of the overly optimistic things that come out of our mouths, such as committing to being somewhere early in the day (impossible because it takes a while to get going when you have RA) or the "me do it" ridiculousness that inevitably brings about a flare in symptoms. Opening jars - or rather, the inability to do so - is often mentioned as the ultimate example in frustration, smacking into your limits and plain humiliation. For Kelly, it's not a jar, it's a set of heavy blinds.
Read more

10 Things about What It Is Like To Be On a Ventilator

Image
This post is a look at the experience of being on a ventilator from the point of view of the person on the receiving end of the tube. I was initially ventilated with a tube going into my airway through my mouth, but don’t remember what that was like. When an attempt was made to extubate me, it didn’t work. I found out later that up to 40% of people who are extubated will need to be re-intubated. When they attempted to do that, my vocal cords were so swollen — common after being intubated — that they had to do a tracheostomy . My memories of being on a ventilator start then. It was an extremely educational experience. Which makes it sound as if it was no big deal and that’s not the case at all. I was remarkably calm about it at the time, but that likely had something to do with the happy pills they feed you in the ICU. It’s a stressful situation to be in and I guess they learned that the patients do better if heavily medicated. Rhythm . I don’t actually remember much about
Read more