There’s a version of a popular saying that states: “Tell the universe what you want and then watch it laugh.” Previously, I had declared that 2018 would be the year of remission for me, and I instantly got a hacking cough, a runny nose, and muscle pain. I…
I rarely ever make a resolution, because like most people, I don’t keep certain ones. It’s funny that if I make a joke about one, that’s the one that circumstances force me to keep. I am a former national-level fitness competitor, and I have been a healthy eater…
Lupus is an ugly diagnosis. It is one that comes with an unpredictable future. Some people get the medications and they are OK, others have a revolving door at the hospital, and some succumb. You just have no idea if it will affect you in ways that will…
I’ve felt, for the first time, what many would call writer’s block. I have had a conflict going on with the two most prevalent things in my life: the joy I push for and the pain I wish would go away. Lupus has brought a lot of things…
On Jan. 1, 2016, I went to Daytona Beach, Florida, reconciled my life, went home, wrote my last wishes and had them legalized, then called my family to tell them where to find the documents. It was the year of the tombstone. That’s what I jokingly started calling…
When I moved to Thailand, a little more than a year ago, I was a vegetarian. When I arrived, I was roughly 109 pounds, but it was not because I decided not to eat meat. Lupus caused me to lose massive amounts of weight…
We all have a vision for our lives. As youngsters, we often were asked what we wanted to be when we grow up. We learn if we are introverts or extroverts and more. I always have been very social and quite talkative. I didn’t shy away from crowds…
We have spent all of our lives in a place that we take for granted, a place that we think we completely control — our bodies. Then we start feeling things that are unexplained, and a diagnosis comes to let us know that we only thought we were…
I don’t usually ask why something happens to me. I am usually the one to ask, instead, what is my purpose in this situation? I am also a solutions-type person, so I realize that asking “why” is going down a never-ending rabbit hole. It will render no real…
Lupus is mean — good for stealing a lot of things from the people it affects. However, since it stole my main career, life has become a lot slower, primarily because lupus stole my energy. But that’s not the point of this column. The point is that when…