My Life Works Today!

Okay, I am beyond excited about this collaboration between technology and molecular biology~ and wanted to share a link with you today from NPR. First, this is a great flu-season topic to cover, as we are surrounded by so many dealing with colds and various other bugs that can complicate our lupus or autoimmune disease self-management. Secondly, ...

In the Celebrations edition of the MLWT enewsletter, I introduced a new column “Community Sharing.”  I will be announcing three topics that come into my email inbox on a regular basis and I am asking those of you who receive the enewsletter to send back your responses so that I can post them here on ...

With the return of my lupus symptoms during the holiday ‘flare’, I’ve been making a more conscious effort to notice the decisions I make in treating them. Usually, I only take two medications to manage my lupus and it’s affects on my kidneys.  Those two medications are an immunosuppressant CellCept ® and the ACE inhibitor/diuretic brand name Lisinopril .  ...

I always look forward to the New Year, full of potential and new experiences.  I no longer make resolutions, only because they come with them old pressures and negative mental tapes of past failures that I’d rather not have hanging over me as I start things off. I’ve learned to simply take one day at ...

I missed the deadline for the PFAM this month, but Leslie has graciously allowed us to submit late and here is mine. I offer both in-person and online Discovery Sessions that focus on wellness – not just illness, but the overall concept of health as “...a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.” (Straub, 2012)  ...

I have been exploring mindfulness practices during my three month hiatus from the blog and have discovered some amazing changes in my own health and well-being.  I stepped away from it in the last week and feel things reeling back out of control, so I know it was doing me some good. In case you don’t ...

I would like to introduce a new MLWT Guest writer, Eric Suarez, who is a fitness trainer and author of a new book focusing on living healthy with fibromyalgia.  As I have been working on building more resources for those of you here in thePacific Northwest facing this particular health challenge, I came across his ...

As you already know, I co-lead Oregon Living Well With Chronic Conditions workshops here in the Portland area (although, they are statewide both in Oregon and Washington under the same name – for more information about Oregon workshops, visit the OR Living Well website).  These workshops emphasize learning how to be your own best self-manager ...

When this MLWT network began, my role was to act as a collector of stories.   Building on the research I conducted on lupus peer-led support groups here in Oregon, I continued to interview, research, review content and take part in as many conversations I could with regards to what ‘support’ means to those of us living ...

If you were unable to attend last Saturday’s presentation by MLWT Guest Writer Cheryl Coon on the nuts and bolts of disability insurance inOregon, it was a great success.  She not only offered us an overview of the step-by-step process, but she also spoke specifically about considering disability options for challenges faced with Fibromyalgia.  Namely, that ...