Living

I will be the first to admit that when the Covid vaccine first became available, I was weary of it. As a matter of fact, I was adamant that I...

My husband, Keegan, has perfected the art of the biologic. I remember the first time he took it. He was so psyched up to do it that I ended up...

I would consider myself a hard-working person. I started babysitting when I was 15. I had my first part time job at 16. All through college I worked evenings and...

I knew — in some intuitive way — that I had ankylosing spondylitis (AS), or something similar about a decade before I got my diagnosis. I knew it when my...

Editor's note: Be sure to speak with your doctor before trying a new exercise program. Building a strong core can be difficult for those of us with inflammatory back pain...

For our Amplifying Black Voices series, we are exploring how bias in healthcare affects the quality of life for Black people living with autoimmune conditions. Science shows that biases and...

When I'm in the throes of an ankylosing spondylitis (AS) flare-up, the fatigue is through the roof. We're talking about getting up to get a cup of water and immediately...

My sister Danica* has a next-level guest room. If she ever decided to quit working in [redacted] Danica would conquer the hospitality business. An alchemist, she makes every room in...

Getting a good night's rest is something many of us in this community struggle with. I too have had and still have my problems with that. Due to the lower...

There's a question that keeps me up at night. Could my husband, Keegan, be suffering from more than just AS? What if his fatigue is chronic fatigue syndrome? What if...

I am making more space for things that are good for me. I am temporarily separating myself from the ideology of productivity so that I can redefine what it means...

Every morning I wake up immediately feeling the fire behind my eyes and think to myself, “Time to do the same thing as yesterday…” The only motivation for getting out...

With a chronic illness that is largely out of my control, I rely on certain items to give me a sense of control and to be as comfortable as possible...

As my one-year painiversary is coming up, I thought writing an article about this topic was important. My last pain-free day was the 13th of April 2020. I did not...

When I was first diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, a form of axial spondyloarthritis, I wasn’t sure how to talk about my experience. Honestly, I didn’t want to think about what...

A lot of my symptoms are very much invisible. When I was first diagnosed, I felt like I was invisible. Within the past year and a half, I’ve made it...

A: Haha, it's pronounced: AN-KUH-LOH-SING SPON-DILL-EYE-TIS. It's a degenerative inflammatory disease that is mediated by the immune system and primarily affects my spine, which means the disease is inflammatory in...

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...

"Centipede to the physician: Doc, when my feet hurt, I hurt all over." In Part 1 of this discussion, I talked about how foot pain can be linked to ankylosing...

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...