This is a guest post by Brittany from NewLifeOutlook. In this post, she is sharing tips on daily living with lupus, which range from dealing with skin rashes to coping with the reactions of others. I hope you find it useful and educational. Living with lupus sometimes requires you to slow down and take one day at a time. There’s no sense in pushing yourself so far that you become fatigued. Yes, there will be some days where you’ll […]
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:
10 Things I Didn’t Realize Would Happen After I Was Diagnosed with Lupus.
Being diagnosed with lupus was a bewildering experience for me. Suddenly, everything made sense – the joint pain, the rashes, the fatigue, the swelling… the endless appearance of new and strange symptoms. Yet, at the same time, nothing seemed to make sense. No one in my family had an autoimmune disease; I’d barely even heard the word lupus spoken before. It’s been eight enlightening months since I was diagnosed with lupus, and I feel like I’m just starting to get […]
In the Depths of My Sickness with Lupus (and Learning to Put My Health First).
I’ve been absent from this blog since my last post in early June, although my posting frequency had been slowing down since the beginning of the year. I didn’t choose this three month blogging hiatus. In fact, I was more or less dragged away – down into the depths of my sickness with lupus. I was too sick to put even the shortest of blog posts together, and for a while I had no idea when I would be well enough […]
Using Hemp Based CBD Oil for Chronic Pain (Product Review).
Living with chronic pain and illness has driven me to the edge of my sanity at times, and once or twice it’s taken me right over the edge into delirium. I’ve tried so many different things to relieve my chronic pain from fibromyalgia and lupus. This includes trying ice, heat, exercise, salt baths, bed rest, massage therapy, physical therapy, and at least a dozen medications. I will keep trying things as much as my ability and finances allow (I have a […]
When Your Spouse Is Also Your Caregiver (+ Tips for Easing the Burden).
I recently wrote a post about how thankful I am for my spouse as a chronic illness sufferer. And while that post was completely truthful, it only shared one side of the story. I’ve found myself thinking lately that I want to share how hard it can be when your spouse is also your caregiver. Even though Mr. Meena is a great husband, there are times when he has said or done hurtful things due to the stress of being […]
Tips for Cooking with Chronic Pain.
One of the most difficult things about living with chronic pain and illness is that life must go on no matter how terrible you feel. We must eat, drink, and have shelter – these things are fundamental requirements for living. (Along with coffee, yes?) Yet, those of us that are chronically ill know that cooking with chronic pain can be extraordinarily difficult, especially if you also have dietary restrictions, suffer from appetite loss, or are trying to feed a family. For […]
The Chronic Disappointment of Chronic Illness.
We were supposed to have an adventure today. I had it all planned – the directions, the hike, even the post-trip burger indulgence. Lupus had a different plan for today. One that included a 24 hour headache, extreme fatigue, and a nearly non-functional body. So I’m sitting at home – probably giving myself a first degree burn with my heating pad – instead of going for a hike. And I’m thinking about the sudden, inevitable, disappointing side of chronic illness. I […]
On Being Thankful for My Spouse as a Chronic Illness Sufferer.
Mr. Meena: husband, engineer, son, roller coaster fanatic, birdy daddy extraordinaire. My spouse is all of these things and more. But his most recent title is “carer”. My husband cares for me, but not just in the usual manner of a husband caring for a wife. He is a carer; he takes care of me because, as a chronic illness sufferer, I can’t always take care of myself. While any chronically ill person has huge burdens to bear, it may […]
What Chronic Illness Has Given Me.
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 […]
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, […]