Living

The concept of a "rest day" never really crossed my mind until I found myself experiencing serious ankylosing spondylitis fatigue. About a year before my diagnosis is when I started...

We all have different experiences with our diagnoses. Some of us have to wait several years, see countless doctors, and do numerous different tests before getting some answers. Others are...

Spending an hour soaking in a nice hot bubble bath with a good book is one of my favorite ways to relax and destress, especially on a blustery winter or...

I can happily say that since I started to take biologics for my AxSpA, I get less flares. These were debilitating, creating swelling in my feet and knee, making each...

Living with a chronic illness often feels like managing a war between my body and the world around me — a world that was simply not built for the chronically...

It’s 4am and my alarm clock goes off. It’s done this 3 days in a row now. I drag myself out of bed, pour a cup of coffee and drink...

Having children was never my top priority in life. Being a teenager, talking with my girlfriends about life plans, we had different views. Most of them wanted kids for sure...

There are times when life with arthritis feels more like a trip to a shabby little haunted house than I'd like to admit. You know the kind I mean. They...

The 2020 holidays really affected me negatively, worse than years prior. Family at the house (albeit only 5 of us), over-spending, cooking larger meals, and ingesting sugar, salt, and alcohol...

Finding a restful night sleep with axial spondyloarthritis can be so hard. Between painsomnia, finding a comfortable position, and worrying about your next flare, drifting into dreamland can feel downright...

Axial spondyloarthritis has taken a lot from all of us who have it. The life we thought we were going to have, the hobbies or passions we have had to...

I was diagnosed with AS while I was an English teacher. From 2009-2017, I had the great privilege of teaching high school students how to express themselves, how to appreciate...

A chronic condition like AxSpA comes with many different challenges and symptoms. Fatigue is one of the most common ones across people’s journeys. It can have a big impact on...

While doctors may prescribe pain medications for AxSpA, like NSAIDS, not everyone wants to take these prescriptions long-term, and some people don’t like the side effects of pain medications. Fortunately...

When I was in graduate school, my life was messy. I was working at a bookstore that undervalued and underpaid its employees, I was dealing with the toxicity of a...

Editor's note: You can read Part 1 of this series here. The spondyloarthritis community has changed a lot these past few years as clinical diagnoses change, too. The common diagnosis...

We live in an age where people glorify productivity at an unhealthy volume. The “hustle” can’t stop and if you do, well, according to those who lead this kind of...

I've been in a dark hole lately. The pain has gotten pretty intense and incredibly constant. Just when I think I'm doing ok, I go take a walk and my...

My wife, Stacia, and I have moved around a bit in the past decade, moving from Massachusetts to Texas to New Mexico and now to Colorado. With all of the...

Even with a treatment that is effective and regular exercise, AxSpA reminds me that it is still here, and manifests itself through new pain. The condition is active, it changes...