I am not grateful for my chronic illnesses, nor will I ever be. They have made my life unbelievably difficult and I would exchange them for a healthier life in a heartbeat. However, since being chronically sick is my current reality, it helps to focus on what chronic illness has given me instead of what it’s taken from me. My chronic illnesses have forced me to simplify my life, to excise anything that wasn’t necessary. During my two year journey with […]
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:
Diagnosis Number Three: Lupus.
Lupus? Are you kidding me? I thought it was never lupus. In November of 2015 I began suffering from debilitating pain while living in Germany. This pain, along with other symptoms, has made it very difficult for me to function normally. Going to the doctor in Germany (several doctors, actually) turned out to be less than helpful, and so I’ve looked forward to the start of this year when I’d be back in the United States and my health insurance deductible would reset. So far, […]
The Unfortunate Realities of Life with Chronic Illness.
You know that feeling you experience when you walk into a room and you can’t even begin to remember why you went there? That’s what it feels like to suffer from brain fog due to chronic illness. On a bad day I leave behind a trail of unfinished tasks, deserting them to wander around my apartment for some reason that I simply can’t remember. I usually find my way back to the things I left uncompleted, looking at them with squinty, […]
What You Don’t See in My Travel Photos.
I became more than a little bit obsessed with traveling shortly after we moved to Germany. Unfortunately, the arrival of my sudden wanderlust coincided with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia. I had already been dealing with various health issues due to early onset osteoarthritis, but figuring out how to deal with a lot of pain while living in a foreign country was a much bigger challenge. I was discouraged by the pain ravaging my body but determined to travel despite it. Although […]
The Mental Strain of a Chronic Illness.
Recently I joined a small group called “Deutsche to go” in order to improve my German speaking skills. On the day before my first meeting, I found myself suffering from mental strain in the form of intense dread. I didn’t want to go. Not because I was lazy or too busy, but rather because I’d be trading more for that language session than 60 minutes and a cup of coffee. I went anyway. At the meeting, I suffered the mental strain […]
Me vs. Medication.
I hate taking medication. I always have, even when I was just a child with a cold (that syrup was nasty). Yet, as someone who has (so far) accumulated two chronic illnesses, taking medication isn’t really optional at this point. (Update: now I have three.) I’ve been on so many different medications already: anti-inflammatories, corticosteroids, anti-malarials, anti-depressants, opiates, muscle relaxers – the list goes on. My biggest issue with medication is that it never gives me something without taking something […]
Lupus Arthritis Stole My Wedding Ring.
My fingers started swelling for the first time about two and a half months ago. I didn’t really notice at first – I just thought the cold German weather was to blame for my hands being slightly red and uncomfortable. After a long winter day in Munich, Mr. Meena and I returned to our hotel room and I attempted to take off my wedding band. It was a ten minute long struggle of twisting and turning the ring while grimacing […]
Staying Positive in the Face of Progressive Pain.
In some ways, chronic pain is similar to depression. Both can knock you out, even on your best days, and you never see it coming. I still find it a bit hard to believe that I was only 24 years old when a doctor told me that I had early onset osteoarthritis. You could have knocked me over with a feather. And it wasn’t brand new – it had been around for a while. It’s rare for this disease to […]