The Seated View

How do you push back against the sadness, worry, and frustration of living with RA? That’s the first prompt in the 2017 #RABlog Week and today, I’ll share what works for me. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other chronic illnesses aren’t just physical, they affect your mental health, as well. For instance, approximately one third of people with RA have experienced depression, some so severe that they have thought of suicide. Having RA batters at your body, your mind, and your soul as you fight fatigue and pain and the stress of trying to push through it all to live as normal a life as possible. Many of us, even if not officially diagnosed with depression, experience awareness of what we have lost, anger, frustration, sadness, and worries about the future. I’ve felt all of those, in the distant and recent past both, and likely will again. For most of my life, I was stuck in a really difficult place where everything I did was tinged with sadness. Then that big flare ha...

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...

#RAblog Week is a seven day event from September 21-27, 2015. The brainchild of Rick Phillips , the goal of this week is to raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis and build community. Hop on over to the RADiabetes site to learn more about #RABlog Week and find links to other participants. For Day 6 of #RABlog Week, the prompt was to write about our first memories of RA. One of my first memories of RA is also one of my first memories, period. My mother is pushing me in a stroller along a dirt road not far from the cottage my parents had rented for a week. The sun is shining, the air smells of pine and sand, and I can hear the crunch of the stroller wheels as they move over the path. I know I am too old to be in a stroller, but my left ankle is swollen and it hurts to walk. We think it’s a particularly nasty mosquito bite. I am four years old.   Me at about 3 years old,  shortly before symptoms of JA first appeared I’m sitting in a crib-like bed, th...