Articles

This is going to be hard to write — and hard to admit to myself — but I've had to develop real boundaries when it comes to engagement in the...

Living with chronic illness means constantly feeling like you are tending to something, whether that be your physical body and its very real and always-present pain, or the deluge of...

If you’ve read my other articles, you will know that before I got sick, I was a remarkably busy person. I used to work a lot while being a student in college. I was always...

It’s roughly twenty years since I first noticed my symptoms. Eight years later I would finally hear them referred to as clear indicators that I had ankylosing spondylitis. During those...

Music is incredibly important in my life. I began playing from a young age courtesy of a lovingly heavy influence from my incredibly talented grandmother. I started formally taking piano...

As I’ve got older, I’ve become less inhibited about certain things. I’d always believed (naively perhaps) a person got more inhibited as they aged. Not less. But maybe it’s the...

Years ago I remember talking to some friends about what we envisioned for our futures—how our lives would look by the ages of 20, 25, 27… I remember saying that...

Many people outside of the axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) community do not understand that “treatment” is a full sentence. The symptoms of spondyloarthritis are ever-changing, full-body, and, oftentimes, not well understood...

If you are anything like me, sleep is vital to your existence and it is non-negotiable for my pain management. And while I can sit here and say this now...

Everyone is at a different stage in their AS, which is why I'm recommending these three below ways to move with one clear caveat: Please listen to your body, and...

Although being diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis was a scary and uncertain experience, there are a lot of positives to come out of it. I began fundraising, something I had never...

Living with condition like AS is not as simple as taking medicine and getting on with it. Medication can only do so much. I'm very grateful for how well my...

I have lived with this condition for 30 years now. And I can say it has been a true rollercoaster ride for me filled with many ups and downs. Unfortunately...

I've lived in New York City for nearly 20 years — and for most of it, nature was just not a priority to me. I relished the cement jungle and...

Have you had a doctor make you feel like your pain wasn’t real? Or maybe they simplified your treatment by saying something like “this is going to be easily managed...

I’ve changed so much during my 20 years with spondyloarthritis that my 24-year-old self probably wouldn’t know me. She lived a life mostly in denial of her disability. That Dawn...

Do you know what brain fog is? Maybe you have it, you just don’t know the term. Brain fog is characterized by forgetfulness, confusion, and a general lack of mental...

It’s a misconstrued assumption that those who have spent years with an illness eventually unlock some secret in managing it. I’m here to say that simply just isn’t true. There...

My life with biologics stretches back six years now. I was diagnosed nearly 15 years after initial symptoms appeared, and since I had been self-medicating with NSAIDs for years (without...

Summer 1999. I am working and earning good money as a self-employed carpenter. The kids are doing well in school and Teresa, my wife, has signed up at our local...