The Girl With Arthritis

  When we think of active psoriatic arthritis, some of the first things that come to mind are painful joints and raging psoriasis. When it comes to tracking the condition, we may only think to note our pain levels and locations. While those things can be indicators of increased disease activity, they're not the only symptoms that can show how poorly or how well we're doing. Fatigue can also be a great indicator of how active (or inactive) your psoriatic arthritis is. This is something you should pay close attention to! Read the full article at psoriatic-arthritis.com

Being diagnosed with a chronic illness is so life-changing. For some, things change rapidly. Some of us suffer for years, feeling the change slowly but surely. But regardless of how it comes, we all mourn. We all deal with change and long for the life we had before. Sometimes, I think that reality is easier to deal with than the "what if's." While I completely accept the condition of my body and what might happen later, it's painful to think of what might've been if I never developed psoriatic arthritis as a child. If I had never developed an autoimmune disease, my bones would still be strong. I would never have to take medications with overpowering side effects. And my parents would never have gone through the heartbreak of having a child suffering in pain. My passion But of all the "what if's," there is one that haunts me daily; what if arthritis prevents me from meeting my full potential as an artist? All the other questions seem meaning...

I think this past academic year has been the oddest of all. By no means was it a bad year. But it certainly was taxing, and I did more growing up than anticipated. My mum had a heart attack in the beginning of October. We didn't see it coming, and it came in the typical fashion with women- quietly, and appearing to be a case of the flu. Even though it happened at noon, nobody called me until 7 pm, the time I finished class that day. My mum was very clear that I was not to be told until after class, and even as I talked to my dad on the phone that night, I could hear my mum saying "she's supposed to be hanging out with her friends tomorrow, tell her to go hang out with her friends." Rest assured, I did not go hang out with my friends the next day. Thankfully, my mum is recovering; it takes at least a year to recover from a heart attack. As soon as she could, she sent me from her hospital room back to college. My mum is so adamant that I never stop my life f...

The older I get, the more my feelings on dealing with a chronic illness change. When I was a young teenager trying to cope with my new diagnosis and the severe impact of treatments on my life, I dealt with hopelessness and despair on nearly a daily basis. As I got older I realized I needed to change my attitude about it because I knew it was something I was going to have to deal with for a very long time, if not forever. Though I naturally do still have moments of hopelessness, generally I try to stay positive about my situation. If anything, having arthritis is quite a joke between my friends and I. But ultimately, I'm honest about it with most people. At least, that's what I thought until recently. Though I think I'm very open and honest about living with a chronic condition, I realized there is a certain population I hide it from. And it's certainly the population I should not hide those things from. That group would be the people I've dated. I think the ...

This summer was a time for my body to recover. After having had a very difficult past few years with various arthritis treatments, I decided to detox (with permission from my doctor) and try to treat it through diet and strength training. But, while I was doing that, something else was brewing. Over the summer I developed a lot of abdominal pain and pressure that came with eating, and I've quickly become underweight. We don't quite know what is going on but thankfully I have the support of so many loved ones and a wonderful team of doctors. Recently after all my blood work was found to be clean, I found out I need to have an upper endoscopy (when the esophagus and stomach are examined with a scope). Regardless of that, I truly feel my body healing. Having cut out certain inflammatory foods, especially coffee and excessive white sugar, I feel such a drastic change. My tendons are no longer tender and the extra fluid on my joints have vanished. For the first time in a very lo...

When I was thirteen years old, my mum and I had a very steady weekend routine. Right after school on Friday, we would go to my doctor’s office where a nurse would give me an injection of methotrexate. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I began to dread Fridays because of the medicine’s side effects. A lot of people with autoimmune arthritis do very well on methotrexate and go into remission. But I didn’t. I remember the doctor often telling me that the medicine “had better start working soon, because [I] won’t like the next level.” It was horrifying to hear this as a kid. I knew it wasn’t my fault, yet I blamed myself. It felt hopeless; if the medicine that worked for everyone else failed me, what would that mean for me later on? But years later, I realized there was no reason to feel hopeless. I’ve seen many different doctors since, and I’ve found that there’s no one way to treat chronic pain. But the most successful approach I’ve found is to treat the person, not the disease. The outc...

     A month ago, I remember putting my hand over my heart; I could feel it racing, pounding, and skipping beats. It was worn and tired, and so was I. The weeks leading up to that moment were brutal. For six weeks, I was lucky to get four hours of sleep most nights, and all my waking hours were spent stressed and working intensely for finals. Most days, I didn’t really talk to anyone and I skipped meals to accommodate more working hours. Ultimately, I was running myself into the ground. And I didn’t care.      But then came that moment, when I realized my heart was struggling from the stress. A long night in the emergency room made me stop working for the first time since March, and forced me to be still and reflect on my actions. I stared at the monitor that showed a heart that was trying so hard to slow down, and I thought about how cruel I’ve been to it.      It’s been an extremely hard year. I would love to sugar coat that statem...