Today Baby Meena is one year old. Yes, it has taken me a year to finish writing his birth story. I wrote down many details in the first two weeks, intending to get the story out much sooner, but I was somewhat traumatized from giving birth and had to stop reliving it in my mind for a while. Life was also really hard with a newborn as a parent with lupus. I have struggled mightily in all areas of my life […]
Category: Chronic Illness
Life with lupus:
Diagnosis Number Three: Lupus.
In the Depths of My Sickness with Lupus (and Learning to Put My Health First).
10 Things I Didn’t Realize Would Happen After I Was Diagnosed with Lupus.
A Day in the Life with Lupus.
The ABC’s of Lupus.
Signs That You Need a New Rheumatologist.
Read all my posts about lupus here.
Life with chronic illness:
100+ Relatable Signs of Chronic Illness.
My 2018 Healthcare Costs with a Chronic Illness in the USA.
How Am I Supposed to Get Better When It Seems Like I’m Always Sick?
What I’d Like to Say to My Medications.
Please Stop Telling Me to Take an Antidepressant for My Autoimmune Disease.
My Pain Needs Privacy.
Pregnancy & Parenthood:
My Lupus Pregnancy: The First Trimester.
The Second Trimester of Being Pregnant with Lupus.
Lupus and Pregnancy in the Third Trimester.
Birth and Lupus: Baby Meena’s Birth Story.
A Lupus Flare and a Teething Baby.
Tips for living with chronic illness:
Tips for Cooking with Chronic Pain.
Using Hemp Based CBD Oil for Chronic Pain (Product Review).
Tablift – the Versatile and Comfortable Tablet Holder (Product Review).
The positive side of chronic illness:
On Being Thankful for My Spouse as a Chronic Illness Sufferer.
What Chronic Illness Has Given Me.
The negative side of chronic illness:
When Your Doctor Quits Unexpectedly.
The Dangers of High Blood Pressure.
When Your Spouse Is Also Your Caregiver (+ Tips for Easing the Burden).
The Chronic Disappointment of Chronic Illness.
The Unfortunate Realities of Life with Chronic Illness(es).
What You Don’t See in My Travel Photos.
The Mental Strain of a Chronic Illness.
Me vs. Medication.
Blog Roll:
My 2018 Healthcare Costs with a Chronic Illness in the USA.
Healthcare costs in the USA are out of control – it’s something our nation discusses constantly – and I am joining the conversation by sharing real figures from my annual medical charges as a chronically ill person. And I’m starting with an outrageous one. My family’s total healthcare cost in 2018 was $73,123. Our portion of that bill was $20,018. The total cost is much higher than the median US salary (which sits around $44,500). It’s approximately half the cost of […]
100+ Relatable Signs of Chronic Illness.
For the past year or so I have been writing down my relatable signs of chronic illness every time one would pop into my head. The list steadily grew – to over 100 – until I finally felt ready to share it with the world. Some are funny, some are sad, and some are a bit specific to lupus or autoimmune diseases. Hopefully you’ll find at least a few to be relatable and feel a bit less alone on this chronic […]
A Lupus Flare and a Teething Baby.
For the first five months, my baby has been an easygoing, dream baby. He has slept 12 hours straight through the night almost every night since he was six weeks old. In fact, he slept so well that from week eight to 12 my husband had to wake him up at night to ensure he consumed enough milk overall (a newborn shouldn’t sleep for more than around four hours without eating). He is one of the happiest and sweetest babies […]
The Dangers of High Blood Pressure.
This post on blood pressure is sponsored by Aeroflow in collaboration with Chronic Illness Bloggers. As always, all opinions remain my own and were not influenced by the sponsor. Do you know what your blood pressure is? When was the last time it was measured? The first time that someone told me I had high blood pressure, or hypertension, was about three years ago. I was at my OBGYN’s office getting checked in for my annual exam, and the woman […]
Lupus and Pregnancy in the Third Trimester.
The third trimester of my pregnancy didn’t have nearly as many sweet spots as the second trimester, unfortunately. It turned out to be quite difficult. Of course, lupus and pregnancy mixed together is never going to be easy. I was able to cope fairly well with most of the issues I encountered until the last two weeks – at that point I was just outright miserable. In this post I’ll be sharing about my medical care, lupus symptoms, and pregnancy symptoms. In […]
Signs That You Need a New Rheumatologist.
Choosing a new rheumatologist was relatively easy, but getting a referral, finding an office that would accept my referral, and then actually getting in to see the doctor was quite difficult. I started trying to find a new rheumatologist after only three appointments with the one who diagnosed me with lupus. In fact, I almost walked out of my third appointment with him after waiting 2.5 hours to be seen – the only reason I didn’t walk out is because I […]
The Second Trimester of Being Pregnant with Lupus.
It turned out to be true for me that the second trimester was the sweet spot of pregnancy. A lot of my first trimester symptoms faded or disappeared entirely and I didn’t experience many new or intense pregnancy woes until the second trimester was nearing its end. Being pregnant with lupus meant that it wasn’t completely smooth sailing, of course. I had more doctor’s appointments, medications, and potential complications compared to the average pregnant woman, and I’ll share them all here along […]
The Importance of Recognizing and Treating Sleep Apnea.
This post on sleep apnea is sponsored by Aeroflow in collaboration with Chronic Illness Bloggers. As always, all opinions remain my own and were not influenced by the sponsor. Nearly five years ago I was sitting next to my soon-to-be husband, attempting to take on the role of gracious caregiver, as he fell asleep after his wisdom teeth removal surgery. I felt awkward and even a little bit creepy watching him sleep with a half-eaten bowl of jello in my […]
The ABC’s of Lupus. (Or, 26 Things About Lupus.)
A few months ago I stumbled across a post called “Fibromyalgia A to Z” and it struck me as a great way to quickly share lots of information about a chronic illness. There are many symptoms and aspects of my illness that don’t necessarily find their way into my blog posts about lupus and this was certainly one of the more creative ways to share 26 of them with you. I hope you learn something new about lupus from this […]