The Seated View

Well, that;s been quite something, hasn’t it?  2016 was a year that had opinions about what should happen, made it so, and many of us didn’t like it. For one, it was, in the words of the Toronto Star, “ the year the music died .” David Bowie left us in early January and I’m still not over it. I’m also not over the loss of Alan Rickman, Prince, and Leonard Cohen, and the loss of Carrie Fisher i s still so raw . And that’s just the people who make the news when something bad happens to them. It seems as if everyone I knew were facing monumental challenges, as well. There’s been illness, worsening of conditions, intense pain, losses. So much it was about two steps forward and three – or 16 — steps back. We climbed mountains, all of us. I’ve talked about my mountain quite a bit here on the blog. Nine months ago, I got the flu and almost died, more than once . The Boy says he figures St. Michael’s Hospital saved my life three times over a two week period. That’s a ...

“Relax,” he said. “Hi!” I replied. “Have you met me? I am not a relaxed person.” I have lived with anxiety since I was a child. My first memory of being really anxious was the first day of Grade 1. I remember the red dress I was wearing. I remember being one of only two students who could read the sign with their name on it on one of the small desks. And I remember being on the verge of throwing up all morning. Because anxiety always hits my stomach. Part of the problem is that I have a vivid imagination and it occasionally veers towards catastrophizing. Another reason is having lived with an unpredictably capricious disease for fifty years. Never knowing how you’re going to feel tomorrow, or if you’re going into the hospital, or if the damned RA is about to do a clog dance on your joints makes for a great deal of uncertainty in life. And it could be argued that we all have a great deal of uncertainty in our lives, but my rebuttal is this: when you are a genera...

#RAblog 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. Up on over to the RADiabetes site to learn more about #RABlogWeek and find links to other participants. For Day 4 of #RABlog Week, we were asked to share 5 things we’ve learned from RA. Here are mine. Living with juvenile arthritis or, as I simply call it now (because it’s easier) RA, for 49 years has taught me endless lessons. Some of them good, some of them the kind that you’d rather live without. All of them have helped me grow. Crying doesn’t change anything . When I was 11 years old, I was admitted to a rehab hospital on the Danish coast in the hope that it would do something for my JA. I hated every minute of it. It was an awful place and I cried for three weeks. It got me no comfort from the staff, and my deep unhappiness did not factor into the decision about how long I was staying (th...