A Young Wife’s Tale

This post is a part of The ChronicBabe Blog Carnival #20. Phillipians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice! My goal for 2011 is to enjoy life. I am tired of saying, “Last year was a rough year for us.” I want to have a good year! I want David and [...]

‘Tis the season for parties, gifts, family, friends and everything that goes with the holidays. For many, this time of year is stressful, and for people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, feeling overwhelmed can make their conditions worse. Here are tips and guidelines from the National Psoriasis Foundation to help you enjoy the festivities.

Know what stresses you. Is it particular people, travel, obligations or maybe finances? Knowing what triggers your stress will help you manage them. Then you can focus on minimizing your exposure to them.

Know how you respond to stress. When you feel pressured, do you get overly emotional, overeat, skip meals, focus on sweets, sleep poorly or get frustrated? Learn to recognize your own personal “stress signals.” Your goal is to catch them early, before you begin to feel too strained.

I’m so excited to feature Pam Stokes Hunter as a guest blogger today! Pam is a very happily married 43 year old SAHM. Her kids are 15 & 17. You can read more about Pam and her struggles with fibromyalgia on her blog, The Journey Leads Home.

I’ve been doing some comparing this weekend. I have been comparing this Christmas season to last Christmas season. I believe I can honestly say last year was the worse Christmas I can remember having. To be completely honest with you I don’t really even remember much of it. I don’t even remember Christmas Day at all. That has nothing to do with my chronic illnesses. After having foot surgery on my right foot the first part of December I thought our holiday season was gonna be spent with me on bed rest with a cast and crutches and everyone waiting on me hand and foot. Little did I know that that was gonna be the least of my concerns although the cast and crutches part was true. After the first week I didn’t get a chance to spend much time in bed. If you are a regular reader of mine then you know that the last year has been the biggest battle in my family’s life.

David and I became active on his company’s health insurance Saturday. We had been on the contract company’s health insurance, and the last two months we were on COBRA. I’m really happy to be on the new insurance. The benefits are a lot better.

Now we just need our insurance cards. David’s out of a few prescriptions, and I’m anxious to get on the health insurance company’s website to search for a new rheumatologist.

There’s a couple at our church here in New Jersey with a daughter who has multiple health problems, including lupus, seizures and a form of arthritis. As it turns out, they took her to David’s rheumatologist, the one who doesn’t think he has psoriatic arthritis.

My jaw hurts. Worse than it has hurt in over a year. I had a filling replaced. It was only two years old. I guess clenching and grinding your teeth wears fillings out pretty fast.

I set up the appointment one week ago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I had a little trouble with my voicemail over the holiday, but I didn’t worry about it, since it was a holiday. Today, I got my voicemail working again, and I had multiple messages from the dental office trying to confirm my appointment. The last message said that they were canceling my appointment since I hadn’t confirmed.