It's not just kids who say the darndest things. It seems like everyone does, especially when it comes to people with chronic illnesses. Including those who should know better. I have a friend I've known for almost 30 years (eek, that really dates me!) who has

I guess I took a sick day yesterday. Sort of. I didn't mean to, but I guess my body knew what it needed and overruled my brain that had over scheduled me. (Actually, even my brain knew it was a bad idea.) It's been a crazy week, and getting crazier every day. It started on Sunday when

One of the most overwhelming things when I first got sick was all the medical lingo I had to puzzle through. I consider myself fairly well educated, and during my days as an AP reporter, I had experience translating complex jargon (whether medical, scientific or government-ese) into English that the average new

It's been a rough few months for a multitude of reasons (but luckily mostly not health related). We had some school-related drama that kept Ellie home for almost two months before we finally enrolled her in a different school. (It's early days yet, but so far, she seems much happier. And her new teacher seems t

Anyone remember Mr. Bill from those Saturday Night Live skits? The colorful gingerbread-cookie-looking character made of play dough who always had horrific things happen and always featured him screaming, “Oh Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!”?

Oh Prednisone, how do I love-hate thee? Let me count the ways! 1. You make me stop hurting! Suddenly, my hands and wrists can again do all the kinds of things they were meant to do without making me long for pain meds. 2. You make me fat(ter) ... with a bottomless pit of hunger that is

I've been meaning to post. I've even started writing at least a dozen posts that are stuck in my drafts folder here. I didn't even get a post out to mark the fifth anniversary (Oct. 14) of my blog.  We've had a bug in the house that seems to be settling in for the long term. Started sometime

Duncan, the founder/creator of the Patients For A Moment blog carnival, is hosting this month's edition, which focuses on how people with chronic illness or chronic pain travel. It's a really good edition, and you can read it

I do, I really hate Nietzche. Or maybe I just hate it when people quote him, particularly the "That which does not kill you makes you stronger" quote (which apparently is not really a true quote but a summarization, according to Wikipedia). If it's true and not simply a cliche, I'm apparently stro

There's something about having a debilitating chronic illness that, for many of us, is something we try to hide from all but our closest friends and family. And sometimes even from them. Even if we don't try to keep the illness hidden, we minimize it, we make excuses for why we can't do something t

I promise this won't be a post full of math equations. (Although I've been watching the series Numb3rs on DVD and wishing some of my high school math teachers had let me know all the ultra cool ways you can use math!) I recently visited a new rheumatologist, and while I did get some good information from her, I

So, exactly two weeks after I stopped taking digoxin, I had a really good day on Tuesday. Quite bizarrely, since on Monday, I still felt like crap. It's something I've noticed occasionally over the past few years, typically when I've had a virus on top of my "usual." When I finally get over the hump of being si

(*Title of a song by The Supremes)

This is the story of my life: On Saturday, we went to an American Girl fashion show. Earlier in the day, I took a shower and washed my hair, then helped Ellie find an outfit and did her hair.

I'm a big believer in the power of venting. Or whining, if you'd prefer to label it such. :) Once upon a time, a million years ago -- I think it was 1997? -- I was sent to a pain clinic because my shoulder surgery wasn't the success that my surgeon thought it should have been. It was an outpatient thing, but a

I hadn't wanted to say anything about in case I jinxed myself, but I was internally celebrating that I seemed to have missed my annual flare, which typically hits me in February or March. I guess this year, my flare was just running late. Kind of like spring here in Portland this year. Because I'm definitely fl

This post is being submitted to the April edition of the patient-centric Patients For A Moment blog carnival, which will be posted on April 15 at Somebody Heal Me. Diana is accepting contributions through April 14; you can see her topic and details

Yesterday, I had two "Oh, cr@p -- it's April!" moments. The first occurred when, after waiting for my acupuncture session for about 15 minutes, her partner asked if I was sure I had an appointment. Of course, I was. I have an appointment every Tuesday at 2 p.m. But the partner looked in the appointment book and

I had a fat pad biopsy this week, something my current favorite doc ordered because my arrhythmia combined with my longstanding symptoms could possibly be caused by amyl

Brittney over at The Road I'm On has an intriguing topic for the March edition of Patients For A Moment: Given the opportunity, what would you tell Congress (your state's delegation, the entire body, and for you Canadians and other nati

Yep, I'm still waiting for that darn mail-order prescription. On the upside, the website shows that it's in transit and scheduled to arrive March 6, so just a few more d

We haven't quite managed to get our Etsy store up and running, but we're getting our ducks in a row and hope to have it open in the next couple weeks. I didn't want to start a new craft blog, but I've been reading a lot about successful crafty businesses and how to create them, and t

Like most people these days, I've switched all my maintenance/daily prescriptions to my insurance company's mail-order pharmacy in order to save money. And for the most part, I do save money, although our copays have increased to the point where on my generic meds (which is almost al

I took an online class this month through Joggles.com, and although I have felt out of my depth in making these funky felt pins, I'm rather pleased with how my projects are turning out. They're still works in progress but I thought I'd share:

As some of you, I've dipped my toes back into traveling since it's become obvious that chronic illness is, well, chronic. And I like taking vacations, even if I have to take my symptoms and health issues along with me. I'm still learning how to be successful at travel, but I have learned a fe

So I was supposed to post the February edition of PFAM yesterday, but there was one little problem: I only got one submission.  And I've been sick enough this month that I apparently didn't promote it enough to get more submissions. I'd meant to follow

It's been a looooong day.  And for pretty much the entire time I've been awake (which was waaaaay longer than usual due to getting called into an 8 a.m. meeting at school that definitely wasn't scheduled for my convenience), I've felt like I have Mexican jumping beans in my heart.