The Seated View

Photo by David Govoni It was Scatterlings that hooked me. I was in first year university at the U of T Scarborough campus, moving from one class to another, when I first heard the unmistakable joyful beat of a Johnny Clegg song, this one from his first group Juluka. Fairly soon after that, I bought the album. Campus radio was a great place to get exposed to all kinds of different music and it introduced me to what became known as World Music, one of my favourite genres. It tapped me into a music scene I’d otherwise not be aware of and I’m pretty sure this was also where I heard about Juluka coming to Toronto. I promptly got tickets to that concert at Massey Hall. It was also the first time I asked a boy out. The date part was decidedly uninspired, but the music lit a fire in me. That evening in 1983 was the start of a (so far) 34 year love affair with Johnny Clegg’s music. It started with Juluka — I have all their albums, even the very early ones that a...

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...

After that medical adventure earlier this year, my lungs are quite miraculously unscathed. When I saw my doctor a couple of days after being discharged from the hospital, she listened to my chest and exclaimed in wonder that my lungs sounded completely clear. About a month later, I had a chest x-ray and in the report, the radiologist focused on the arthritis in my spine, because there was nothing else to talk about. I am a very, very lucky woman. I still use puffers every day and as a result, have had a summer that has been remarkably free of the usual allergy and asthma symptoms connected to growing vegetation. So it’s all good, right? Well, there is one nagging little thing that I’m working on. I still don’t have quite as much air or lung capacity as I used to. If I rattle off an extra-long sentence, I run out of air towards the end. Sure, it’s much better than it was five months ago, but it’s still annoying. So I’ve decided to do something about it. Enter si...