Grammie's Double Whammy

It's been awhile. Did you miss me, I wonder?  I've been drifting about on the clouds of memory fog and forgetfulness that accompany conditions like psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia. (My family gets a kick out of my loopiness.) The plethora of doctor appointments and hospital stays have kept me pretty occupied, as well. Since autoimmune dysfunction assaulted my life, I have come to accept most things as they appear with much less stress than before. Perhaps time heals. Now if I could just remember to schedule that massage... Having been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2014, I am much more invested in the reality of this disease now. I have read, asked questions, written, researched, traveled and cried. Knowing what I know now, I wish I wouldn't have been so hard on myself. A gift from my daughter, Alesha, may have been the the gentle nudge I needed to truly realize this. She gave me a rose bush for Mothers Day the same year I was diagnosed with psoriatic ar...

*WEGO asks: Was starting your advocacy journey a hard  decision? Were you anxious and hesitant or were  you excited and ready to share your story? Tell us  how you chose to start advocating for your  condition. Advocacy in the realm of autoimmune disease was a fluid and natural process for me. My daughter, now 26 years old, was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 2. I had spent her young life learning about rh factors, ana tests, and a plethora of other acronyms and abbreviations pertaining to her disease.  When Alesha was diagnosed, I felt incredibly isolated. It was such a difficult place to be because I struggled with undiagnosed clinical depression. (It would be 8 more years before I realized that diagnosis), but my little girl needed me, so  I stepped out of that random and very dark place to tackle the beast called Arthritis(JRA).  Such a motivating factor gave me a feeling of power like I could divide and c...