Anne-Marie Raymond

Here in Australia we’re leaving the cold weather behind and enjoying the spring. At this time I’m once again conscious of all my friends in the northern hemisphere living through...

When it comes to life lessons, it would seem I prefer to learn them the hard way! This was certainly the case when I decided to try lifestyle strategies to...

Like the majority of people with ankylosing spondylitis, I tested positive for the gene HLA-B27. Following my diagnosis I often wondered about this genetic marker and the line it traced...

One of the things I really dislike when I’m in an AxSpa flare is how messy my house can get. I’m definitely one of those “tidy house, tidy mind” people...

“Be sure to stretch” was one of the few pieces of advice I walked away with when I was told I had AS. The message got lost for a while...

It’s been just over two years since I started taking Low Dose Naltrexone to help manage my AS. LDN is a somewhat controversial, off-label prescription that is well known in...

In something of a weird coincidence, my step-father also had ankylosing spondylitis. Russ died tragically in a car accident several years before I was diagnosed, and most of my knowledge...

I’ve told my personal story with AxSpa many times over. Following my diagnosis I decided to help create awareness by creating a blog called Living Well With AS. In it...

Typed into the notes section of my phone are a collection of messages that no one sees but me. I think of them as my AS first-aid kits. Some of...

I once worked for a company where the notion of positivity was prized above all else. Falling short of your sales target? Stop finding excuses! Current system not working? Stop...

We most commonly associate the term grief with death. It’s used to describe the emotional state we experience when someone close to us passes away. In its simplest form, though...

Like so many other places online, the axial spondyloarthritis community has become an increasingly polarized place to inhabit in recent years. I was so thankful to discover an assortment of...

Getting a massage used to be one of my favorite things. Heading to the spa a few times a year felt like the ultimate way to indulge myself and escape...

Back in the freedom of our pre-Covid world I was lucky enough to attend a specialist self-management course for ankylosing spondylitis at a community hospital here in Melbourne. The course...

Like many people my age, I grew up with parents and grandparents who saw doctors as the ultimate authority. It never entered their heads to question anything a medical professional...

One of the hardest aspects of my diagnosis was breaking the news to my mother. Having lived most of her adult life with ulcerative colitis, Mum knew firsthand the misery...

Working as a health coach, I often find myself talking with people about improving the health of their gut. I’ve been focussed on healing my gut for about 8 years...

There’s a certain hopeless finality in being told you have a disease with no cure. I didn’t for a moment question the highly trained specialist sitting before me when he...

It had been a year without a flare, the first I could remember in more than a decade. The years of fine tuning, taking care of my health, figuring out...

Being kind to yourself is important when you have a chronic illness like ankylosing spondylitis. Some days self-compassion means cutting myself some slack when I feel too tired, sore, or...