To my Chronic Illness Medical Team…
It was very therapeutic for me to write a guest blog post for CreakyJoints, a patient advocacy and education site that focuses on arthritis and related conditions. To my chronic illness medical team is my love letter to the often unsung heroes in the medical profession: providers who care for patients like me who have chronic, complex, invisible illnesses. I am so fortunate to have had dozens of compassionate, caring providers during my 16 years with rheumatoid arthritis. I hope to inspire other providers to go into some of the less popular specialties such as pediatric rheumatology, where there are currently some shortages nation-wide. You won’t have the most straightforward patients,…
A New Way to interpret “But You Don’t Look Sick”
I am happy to report that I am now blogging on the Creaky Joints website. Creaky Joints is a nonprofit that provides information sharing, support, and advocacy resources for persons with arthritis and related conditions, many of which are chronic, invisible illnesses. My first blog post was A New Way to Interpret “But You Don’t Look Sick – please note the link is currently broken but I’m told it will be fixed soon (as of 10/2019). While we’re waiting for it to be back up, I’ve posted the text for this post below. ————————————————————————————————————– When I communicate my diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis to someone for the first time, I’m often told…
My Chronic Illness Playlist
Why music? While managing my autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis over the last 12 years, I’ve found music to be helpful in a variety of situations. Some songs help me calm down when I’m anxious, other songs allow me to just “be” in a sad moment, and some music inspires me or puts everything in perspective. Not surprisingly, research has shown that listening to music can have many positive effects on one’s mood as well as other aspects of the mind. Research specifically on the use of music in persons with chronic illness have found it to have beneficial effects as well. With that in mind, I’d like to share my personal “chronic illness playlist.” I’ve divided the songs…