Articles

Before I got sick, I would get blood tests done twice a year. Just to make sure I wasn’t deficient in anything. Usually, I was deficient in iron. I used...

The holidays are long over now, but I felt the need to write this in case someone else suffered from them as long as I did. As I write this...

It was a celebration I'd been looking forward to for months — heading down to New Orleans, Lousiana for my birthday, which also happens to fall on Halloween weekend. I...

Ever since AS started making a real appearance in my life, I started dreading flights. This is sad to me because I used to love airplanes. I loved the in-betweenness...

Unfortunately, in all aspects of life, I am a procrastinator. While being a procrastinator, I am terrified of failure. So, let’s call me an anxious procrastinator. I leave things to the last minute. But while I’m sitting there not doing the things I should be, instead of relaxing, I...

Samuel Beckett’s absurdist classic Waiting for Godot often comes to mind when I’m left waiting for any significant period of time. Beckett’s play has been reimagined many times over, covering...

These past few tumultuous years make me wonder how my ancestors managed to do as well as they did with their own trials and tribulations. All my elders from my...

I had another surgery just recently. This time it was a selective procedure for my thumb osteoarthritis on the right hand. I had the left-hand thumb repaired with ligament reconstruction...

Have you noticed how good people in arthritis advertisements look? Each time I see one of those commercials, I think, wow, I want to feel like that. Inject this or...

I recently got asked by someone I met through coaching and lifestyle self-management how I got AxSpa? That is a very good question, and one question that haunted me for...

When you live with disability and or chronic illness, you can be so focused on finding that “cure” or thing that will make your life more like what it used...

Trying to make a living while living with a chronic condition may be possible depending on the severity, but also may be one of the hardest things to accomplish for...

I’ve written about this topic before, but it still hurts like hell to write about. It hurts to think about. I don’t think losing a friend due to my illness...

I was newly diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and still celebrating freedom from pain when I noticed the first signs something affecting my stomach. Over the weeks and months that followed...

Today was my second day straight calling in sick at work. Hopefully, they will understand and it won’t put my job in jeopardy. I worry so much because of the...

Editor's note: A friendly reminder that everyone has different dietary needs, and what works for author Dawn may not work for you. My doctor asked me to try the DASH...

2022, Here We Come! Happy New Year! What does the start of the new year mean to you? To me, this question has shifted over the years living with AS. The...

Living with an illness and trying to get those around you to understand, to a certain extent anyways, what it’s like to be in your shoes can take a lot...

I’ve never dyed my hair or done anything adventurous with it. So, I rarely go to the hairdressers. Before Covid I might go every 4-6 months to get a trim...

I’ve said from the start of this disease that I personally believe therapy is key in managing this disease. I had mental illnesses prior to being diagnosed with AS, but...