Living

In 2016, I was overworked, underpaid, and burning the candle at all ends. Every day, I’d wake up before 5am for my job as an AP English teacher. After work...

Around the time I was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), I became heavily invested in the medicine of movement. It’s not that I didn’t want to take pharmacological drugs. I...

The short answer is: I don’t know. This would be an incredibly short article if my answer was simply yes. I asked the question because I’ve seen a change in...

I’ve spent much of the last two years feeling an overwhelming sense of loneliness and isolation. Though the online community has helped me greatly, I still felt as though I...

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...

I've previously spoken about the mental challenges of having AS and being immunosuppressed during the pandemic. Unfortunately, that was just the tip of the ice berg. Here are some more (of the many) aspects...

Ankylosing spondylitis has taught me something incredibly valuable — that one day will never be the same as the next. I used to think if I was on a streak...

I've always been an active, outgoing person, so when I lost my job of 8 years, I became very depressed for a whole year. Then I realized there's still life...

The start of a new school year is coming up quickly. Far more quickly than expected (wasn’t it just June?). And, that means getting back into a schedule. For many...

Sometimes, you just gotta let it out. That comes from a caregiver myself as well as seeing my husband go through so much frustration during diagnosis, treatment, and multiple surgeries...

I recently returned from Los Angeles, a valid business trip, but my daughter and I also chose to see the sights as well. We flew in Sunday for Monday-morning business...

Summer time for me always comes with a lot of traveling. Day trips, extended weekends trip, or a quick flight somewhere. Over the years living with AS, I have learned...

A few years back, I wrote about my dating experiences while having AS. Guess who’s back for another article on dating! Since identifying as a disabled person, my experiences with...

Tonight was the first night our young family had a moment to enjoy dinner on our back porch. We finally set up the table and chairs ordered months go. It...

I don’t know where you live, but recently, we’ve had a massive heat wave where I live in Canada. The humidity has been into the 40s Celcius (100s Fahrenheit), and...

Brain fog is definitely one of the more annoying symptoms of AS. It’s bad enough that this condition robs us of our mobility at times but stealing our brain power as...

These past 2 weeks felt like heaven. For anyone suffering from a chronic illness, it's a wish come true to be able to get good days. I was one of...

As a rule, guilty pleasures are things that we enjoy despite a certain amount of low regard by society or our specific peer group. It's usually embarrassing to admit our...

We're back with another pop quiz to test your knowledge! Let us know how you did in the comments below! Have a question or perspective you want to share with...

It's storytime. Are you ready? I’m out to dinner with some people — friends of a friend — who are casually talking about a work colleague. The colleague clearly has...