Articles

There's a lot of evidence for how helpful writing can be for people who experience the trauma and grief of illness — and chronic pain in particular. And, as a...

Wow! Just writing this title feels strange. Strange to think that it has now been 10 years since the onset of my AS symptoms and the beginning of a wild...

The journey to a diagnosis of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is riddled with challenges that prevent patients from receiving the diagnoses and treatment they need. In particular, misconceptions about AS can...

Axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpa) and degenerative disc disease are both illnesses of the spine that share many of the same painful symptoms. Sometimes it is even hard for doctors to tell...

As time goes by, I'm getting less and less nervous injecting! I never, ever thought that I would be saying this. But now, I look forward to my injection. I...

I’ve been using mobility aids for about 4 years now. The thing is, it wasn’t until more recently that I started to use them in public as needed. I think...

Ableism: Discrimination [whether purposeful or not] in favor of able-bodied people. This article is for people who love someone with a chronic illness, for people who are just learning about...

“While writing about my health issues has not cured them, it has helped me develop better coping skills and even contributed to better management of my symptoms (and I could...

I did not react well to Cimzia. It did not help me. I ended up in the ER after three months of feeling unwell, a month-long headache, and a weeklong...

Mine is a common story. My lower back symptoms began when I was a teenager but I wasn’t diagnosed with axial spondyloarthritis or even referred to a rheumatologist until a...

The door opens and the first thing I noticed is the air on my skin. Crisp and dry, it is cold inside. Then, the smells are noticed next. It varies...

Like so many of us, receiving a diagnosis took some time for me as well. When I was about eleven or twelve years old I started getting pain in my...

Ten years ago, I became a mom. Three years into those ten, my oldest son was diagnosed with autism. It was not a shocking diagnosis, but it was a life-changing...

As a duo of a Life Coach (Julie) and a Health Coach (Lana), we have decided to write a series of articles together. We want to share our stories with...

Struggling with inflammatory arthritis, I have days where I feel okay and days I don’t. It’s important to tune in to my body and its energy level daily to take...

Before I get into the details of my trip, I just want to say I went on this reset trip back in November, when the virus wasn’t spreading as bad...

I received my vaccine on a Wednesday, and by the evening, I was already feeling sick. I had a headache, fever, and hot and cold sweats. Overall, I felt weak...

One of the things that we talk about the least when it comes to ankylosing spondylitis is the sheer mental exhaustion. Obviously, fatigue is all-encompassing, which means it takes over...

Auldyn and Keegan are no strangers to the difficulties of traveling with ankylosing spondylitis. Traveling can get even more complicated when you're with extended family members who may not understand...

Sometimes I feel like the number of ways AxSpA can affect my body are endless. It’s extremely discouraging. But as a systemic disease, the truth of the matter is that...