Articles

It wasn’t very often, if I even did at all, that I thought about what it would be like if I came out of remission. Transitioning into this new way...

There's no other way to say it: axial spondyloarthritis flare-ups are the worst. You might be having a good few days, and then seemingly out of nowhere, your muscles and...

Many hours in the library later, the day is finally here — I have completed my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts, Honours Specialization in Psychology. If there is any...

Have you noticed how much content is devoted to what seems like normal things people should already know how to do? I'm not talking about the trumped up lists with...

I’m sure many of us in the chronic illness community can relate to what I’m about to say. It’s gotten to a point in the pandemic where everything is divided...

As a 35-year-old, fairly active woman with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), I've come up against some pretty inaccurate and aggravatingly annoying ideas and questions about this disease over the years. I...

As a medical student, you spend most of your time reading about all these rare diseases and learning how to recognize them on test days, and later on in future...

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...