Living

Over the past few years, I've learned a lot about what it means to have ankylosing spondylitis. When I was first diagnosed, I lived in this hazy fever dream. I...

You know how living with ankylosing spondylitis can feel like speaking a language that only you understand? It can be really isolating and frustrating, even when other make a concerted...

I hate finding out that somebody wasn’t actually my friend. It’s painful and embarrassing, especially when the evidence was plain for me to see all along. Betrayal can be confirmed...

Getting diagnosed with AS really took a massive hit on my career. Before my spine started to act up, I was enjoying life working as a teacher in China. Then...

The other day a friend sent me a poem and one line really stuck out to me. It said, “Growing inside of a body that I no longer call my...

This article will be about my self-care plan. I always thought self-care was just taking baths, going for a walk and lighting candles to relax. After some research, I learned that there...

I have been back on Humira for 6 months now, which is the same drug that had put me into remission for 8 years. Of course, I was not assuming...

The COVID-19 pandemic as well as my spondyloarthritis (SpA) have tossed me in so many directions over the past 2 to 3 years - fear, panic, fatigue. I feel at...

Anybody reading this already knows that arthritis is serious. It hurts. It burns. It stops people in their tracks with brain fog, stiffness, reduced range of motion, and fatigue. In...

Next month marks 14 years since Keegan and I got together. I remember it very fondly. We were 17-years-old and mutual friends were trying to get us to date. Keegan...

There’s a huge shift happening right now in on the work scene, with employees demanding more in terms of benefits, pay, and work flexibility. One of the changes I’m seeing...

My rheumatologist of the last fifteen or so years is retiring. Talk about striking fear in the heart of a long-term patient. Wow, that is not great news. I know...

When I was diagnosed with AS, I was also diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. A double whammy. I grew to understand that dietary changes and certain diets could have the potential...

2021 was fun, tiring, wonderful, complicated, and stressful, among other things. Above all, it was a long, exhausting year full of healthcare visits for me. As a result, I’ve been...

Receiving an AxSpA diagnosis can come with a flurry of emotions, both good and bad. I received my diagnosis before my senior year of college and what was supposed to...

It is going on 2 months since returning back to work. I have good days and I have bad days. I love what I am doing. Then what is the...

As I’m writing this, I’m having the worst flare since starting Cosentyx. I have been on Cosentyx for a year now. It has given me my life back. Besides this horrible flare, I’ve been doing...

"I felt like I was having a heart attack," a friend in an ankylosing spondylitis support group wrote, flabbergasted. "I felt like my chest was on fire, and like my...

Injecting biologics can take a while to get used to. The AS and AxSpa community, especially on Instagram, have been sharing their injection videos for quite a while now. It...

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, I was blessed enough to have lived 8 years in remission. During those 8 years I couldn’t even remember what it was like to...