Columns

It’s the beginning of the long and hot summer holidays here in Western Australia, and groups of parents are standing around chatting outside the classrooms while swatting away the pesky flies. “So what have you got planned for the holiday?” is the prevailing question. “Booked a nice trip anywhere?…

It’s the beginning of summer here in Australia, and I’m sitting peacefully at my dining table, basking in the blissful stillness of my normally noisy living room. Through the open doors, I can hear the heady drone of cicadas as they­ buzz in time with one another, like a huge…

My three boys down the hallway and my husband next to me were off in dreamland. The occasional rumble of a passing car and the shadows on the walls from the streetlights were hardly noticeable. My thoughts centered on how I could manage the beast inside my body. Although the…

The busy Christmas season can be overwhelming, even when you don’t have a chronic disease like ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Because both my husband and I have AS, sometimes we find it hard to enjoy socializing as we used to before our diagnosis. In the past few years,…

This morning I planned to go for a long walk beside the beach here in Perth, Australia. It’s a beautiful piece of coastline, with turquoise waters splashing crisply against the white sands. You can walk for hours along a beach-side path and enjoy watching the surfers, ocean swells, and jaw-droppingly…

After many months on the hospital waiting list, I was looking forward to my first rheumatologist appointment. I had high hopes that I’d be prescribed medication that could help with my horrible nighttime pain from ankylosing spondylitis (AS). I already wasn’t coping with the pain and insomnia, and because…

As I lay in bed, I heard the wind howling. With every gust, I felt the house shaking just a little bit. The cold, almost icy drops of rain pounded hard against the window. The previously crisp and colorful fall leaves, now soggy and dead, disintegrated as they fluttered to…

“Ooh, my back hurts!” my 3-year-old son groaned, clutching it dramatically as he crouched on the carpet amid a pile of Duplo blocks and miniature cars. He glanced at me cheekily from under his long eyelashes, checking to see if I was paying attention. “What’s going on, buddy? Are you…

“What’s one of the best things I can do to help?” I asked my husband, Dave, who has ankylosing spondylitis (AS). We were sitting together outside, relaxing after the whirlwind evening routine of getting our kids into bed. He pondered this question for a minute, as we watched the…

Don’t stand too close, because I’m a sniffling, coughing, bathrobe-wrapped lump of a human this week. It’s nothing too serious, just a run-of-the-mill sore throat and cold that’s making me speak like I have a clothes peg on my nose. Being sick is never fun, but I’ve noticed…