Columns

Best Face Forward: Taking Care of Your Skin

My face starts to itch. I’m noticing my skin is more photosensitive than ever before, and it’s annoying. I feel the little red bumps beneath my Urban Decay makeup, and as “beat” (meaning done-up) as my face is, I don’t feel like I’m in a Beyoncé video. Well,…

Lupus and Employment: To Work or Not to Work?

One topic I hear about often when it comes to lupus and chronic illness is the subject of employment. In the past 17 years, I’ve heard some incredible stories of compassionate employers from people living with lupus. Unfortunately, I have also heard stories that have made me cringe.

Disability Pay? What Disability Pay?

Recently I was discussing earnings with another warrior. I love learning new things, and they often relate to creating income online. This has caused a lot of people to come to me with business ideas they want to take online, or people who want to know how to…

Pushing Through the Pain

Recently, I had a very ugly flare that caused me a lot of pain. Every time I have a flare, it really sets me back — not just physically, but mentally as well. I have an increasingly harder time recovering after each flare. For so many of us,…

Not Quite the Big ‘R’, But Close

Thursday of last week was a big day for me. Actually, scratch that. It was a huge day. A milestone. That Thursday, every moment of pain and struggle over the last two years finally amounted to something wonderful. In revealing the results of a recent kidney biopsy, my…

The Chronically Ill Couple

My boyfriend, Jordan, is my best friend and my rock. We’ve built our relationship’s foundation on a deep-seated love for food and the understanding that, in so very many ways, our realities with young adulthood are both uncommon and generally misunderstood. You see, Jordan doesn’t just sympathize with…