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Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt

After nearly 15 years with lupus, I’ve come to realize that the journey with the disease moves along much like the seasons of the year. Spring, full of energy and promise and new things, is much like the early days of getting the diagnosis. After a long time, you finally know what is wrong (and…

Paper cuts, ear wax build up, a common cold, a brief bump against a table that bruises a leg. For many people, these things are inconveniences that pass quickly. Oh, but we who have chronic illness most probably know differently. The “little things” can quickly become like that sneaky waterfall, where calm waters lead to…

If we took all of the minutes and hours that we’ve spent on hold, waiting to talk to someone on the telephone, waiting for test results, waiting for appointments in the doctor’s office…and we received even $.25 per minute, imagine how rich we’d be!  Add in the amount of time we’re undoubtedly going to use…

Are you ready, yet? No, not for this weekend. Not for the rest of this month. Are you ready for the holidays? As I type this, my fatigue level is 100 on a scale of 1-10. And just as my eyes have beheld the latest of my many prescription refill forms, so, too, have they…

So often, when we’re battling symptoms or snags in our healthcare, or just having a bad day, we feel as if life is stacked up against us. Yes, we feel like the underdog, not favored to win or even, perhaps, finish the race. As I watch the U.S. Open tennis tournament this year, I’ve taken…

)n this Labor Day weekend, as we relax and unwind, we might inevitably think about the work that we do and wonder what in the world it has to do with our overall, spiritual purpose in life. This might be a fairly straightforward thing to do if you have a “regular” job, one that, perhaps,…

I met up with a neighbor recently. I hardly ever see her because she’s always working. But on this day, she was dressed casually, carrying a department store shopping bag, and wearing a cautiously cheery smile. “Off today?’ I asked her. “Yes, for once,” she replied. Her smile faded a little and she glanced down…

A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Sirach 6:5 Some days, nothing seems to go right. More symptoms. More pain. Insurance snags. Money troubles. The roof leaks. The dog runs away.  No one answers your calls. Yup, some days, there’s nothing good to be said. Or, is there? I’ve battled, cajoled,…

August 26 has been named “National Dog Day,” and it’s a fine time to remember all the wonderful ways our furry friends enhance our lives, whether we have chronic pain and illness or not. I’ve known some remarkable dogs. There was Kolya, a Great Pyranees that served people at UCLA Medical Center by visiting the sick,…

I’d just come from the dreaded fasting bloodwork and was standing in line at the local coffee shop. As people put in their orders and gave their names to the order taker, I marvelled at how exotic some of them sounded. “Sheena.” “Jasmine.” “Rodrigo.” My name seemed to become more and more plain as the…
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