Just Keep Swimming – a Column by Janneke Phung

Janneke Phung is a 36-year-old mother to three boys and is married to a wonderfully supportive husband. Janneke lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she takes full advantage of being surrounded by both prairies and mountains. Running her home, feeding her family, homeschooling her 6-year-old and keeping her 3-year-old twins out of trouble is her full-time job. In October 2019, after years of health struggles and needing to advocate for herself, she was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, which prompted her to make drastic changes to her lifestyle. Her motto is to “Just Keep Swimming” in the face of adversity, with hope in perseverance and passion about advocating for others who struggle with rare diseases

A camping trip reminds me of my life with AS

Do you like camping? I do. However, my love for camping (read: my attitude) was tested this spring. We had just backed our minivan — which was packed to the rafters with kids and gear — into our campsite for the weekend. We started unloading it but soon realized that…

How online communities affected my AS journey

Without Facebook, my spine would likely be fused and, almost certainly, my quality of life wouldn’t be what it is today. But I hate giving it so much credit for my current well-being. Clearly, I have a love-hate relationship with social media. In 2019, when I was in the early…

My top 5 AS flare triggers — and why it matters

“How in the world did we get so unlucky?!” I couldn’t believe that our fourth mattress in a year appeared to be another dud. Shortly after this disappointing occurrence, I had a revelation: The mattresses weren’t the problem. I was. At the time, ankylosing spondylitis (AS) was a new…