The Seated View

© The Arthritis Society We talk a lot about empowering people who live with chronic illness, such as arthritis, to get to a place where they can live better lives and get better care. This weekend, I was thrilled to participate as a mentor in ArthritisHack at the MaRS Discovery District here in Toronto. The event brought together designers, programmers, health professionals, policy analysts and the people who have lived experience with these conditions to create something spectacular. ArthritisHack was hosted by The Arthritis Society , sponsored by Lilly , and produced by Hacking Health . On Friday evening, teams pitched their ideas and then spent the rest of the weekend putting it together and, I suspect, drinking a lot of coffee. Mentors signed up for one or more sessions of three hours. Our job was to roam between the teams, offering encouragement, guidance, and every now and again challenge an idea so it could be finetuned and improved. The Arthritis...

Biologics are notorious for increasing your risk of infections, especially those of the upper respiratory tract. In other words, sinus infections. Cue headaches, a feeling like your head is filled with cement, post-nasal drip, nausea, debilitating fatigue, thick brain fog, plus that awful smell that no one else can smell. There is nothing like it to convince me that I will feel like it for the rest of my life. But there are things you can do to prevent sinus infections or, if one shows up, reduce the impact. This rarely involves antibiotics. Medical science has discovered that sinus infections mostly resolve on their own — yes, even when you’re immunosuppressed. In the past two months, I’ve seen my GP several times, as well as an ENT specialist and neither handed me a prescription for antibiotics. However, I have picked up a number of tips on how to prevent and treat sinus infections that I want to share with you. We’ll get to those shortly.  How sinus infections h...