Rhia Reaching Beyond Lupus - "The Wolf"

It so, so difficult to even think about the unfathomable amount of loss over the East Coast. As the stories continued to unfold, the loss of life, homes, everything for so many people, cities, entire towns, and our economic situation, we try to find reasons for why this has to happen. I know it has to be a question that runs through all of those in the wake of this "massive monster storm", as to why our country endures such a loss that is too big for words. Yesterday, as I went to run some errands, I happened to have to run to get my dogs some medication. There is a woman there I know, and she was in the process of getting the channel on the TV there to watch what was happening as far as the storm. We got to talking, and her comment was "She felt this was a "sign" of the times", which I feel the same in many ways about. These types of "Monster Storms", along with all types of unthinkable natural disasters are so difficult to view any other way. T

Here is the amazon.com link to my new book - "Ramblings of A Seasoned Soul" Brush Strokes of Life in Words.. http://www.amazon.com/Ramblings-Seasoned-Soul-Strokes-Volume/dp/1461061946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351633040&sr=8-1&keywords=Ramblings+of+a+seasoned

                           Ramblings of A Seasoned Soul -                                Brush Strokes of Life Through Words   https://www.createspace.com/3587328?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026&fb_action_ids=4425618113428&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582 It is Done!!! Finally after so many years, way more than 30, I have published my very first book! I pray there will be several more to follow! For most of my life, I have written, poetry, journal writing, just writing. I write for all kinds of reasons, through pain, happiness, sadness, strife, chronic illness, love, laughter, and life above all!!! I promised myself that before I take that one last breath, I would get a book published! TODAY October 29th, 2012, is another one of those monumental days of life that make you feel you are standing a top your own mountain and not one soul could ever make you roll down again! But, those rolls down are what gave me all of

As I scurry to read about this massive possibly deadly and most certainly destructive storm, I like so many thousands and thousands across the nation and world are thinking and praying for all in harm's way. It is so difficult to fathom Mother Nature can decide to throw such a massive natural disaster our way and within moments, take live and turn it upside down. But, it can certainly do that within the blink of an eye. speaking of the "eye" gosh, in looking at the size of this monster, just the cloud cover alone tells you the drama that is about to unfold over the entire Eastern Coast Line.... When it is going to possibly effect the Great Lake's around Chicago, with a storm surge, as I believe I read, the just slowly begins to allow me to understand the horrid amount of damage to possible life, and then to thin of how many lives will be effected in one way or the other by this storm as it comes through on its very slow path. From dumping more than a foot of snow in t

this is the largest mess I am seen in our medical society and just continues to get worse by the moment! It is a testament to just how fouled up we are with our medical situation in this nation. My questions is HOW can VIALS of a medication that goes through many hands, from the compounding pharmacy, to the hospitals pharmacy, to the nurses who pick it up, to those who handle the vial in the OR, to even the main OR nurse and the DOCTOR!!!!, and you mean to tell me NOT ONE person saw "CRAP" floating around in a CLEAR VIAL of medication???? How can that be??? So many people handle a vial of medication for injection like that, thus missing some greenish black or white filament like stuff floating in fluid that is supposed to be either clear or even if a little cloudy when shaken etc... SOME ONE should have SEEN IT????? We have TOO MANY PATIENTS, and doctors that SEE too may patients, they do too many procedures daily, and that is why these kinds of mistakes are not caught somewh

Many months back, I began to think about the ways "humans" treat other "humans". Within our daily normal walk of life, we usually encounter many people. If we have children, are employed, or run errands, pay bills, go shopping, or anything that requires being out of the house, we more than likely see someone that we have an opportunity to speak to. Neighbors are probably our closest as far as having a conversation. If you have people living right next door to you, and you are not far out in the country without close neighbors, I would say you see them in their yards, picking up the paper, watering, washing their car, taking their kids to school, going to work, and so forth. Thus you have ample opportunity to get to know or at least be somewhat familiar with who lives beside you, or possibly on each side, like us, as well as a couple of the homes across the street. We know all of them. Now, this does not mean we have dinners together, or visit on Saturdays, but we al

Well the biopsy was negative, which is exactly what we expected... plus he never admitted that the Prednisone may have healed it before we could get the biopsy done...he just said well it is negative for Giant Cell Arteritis... of course which is good... The jackass did take out the stitches...BUT it really was NOT quite healed enough and now there is a kind of GAP there!!! and of course it will show on the side of my head with a scar if it does not heal right, plus he said "be careful" because it may split open , and the first thing that happened is I accidentally bumped it putting on my glasses, he did not even butterfly it or anything!!!! We got some and my husband put them on right away... he then had the audacity to want to see me in a week! Hell there is not any more he can do.... we asked him what was wrong.. he never admitted it could have been the Arteritis but the Prednisone already fixed it, like we both read... and then he would not admit possibly he

I sit here and it is so EARLY on a Sunday morning I have to wonder if I am with half the world that is up, or am I NOT with the other half that is in bed. I know that for many with illnesses that are chronic in nature, for instance, Lupus, and/or RA, being UP in the middle of the night, when you should be sleeping gets to be part of the normal in your life. For me, the night terrors are mainly what wake me up at first. Then it is the pain of my joints, especially wrists, fingers, ankles, thumbs and feet that make me decide not to go back to bed. Sometimes I am up for a hour, and then wind up on the recliner sofa, with one of my puppies, Bubba Gump, and I get some more rest sleeping there for a couple of hours. Other times, I find myself in a mind set, that I NEED to DO, THIS, THAT AND THE OTHER, or I will be running behind, so my MIND keeps me UP, rather than it resting as it should. Either way, if I stay up as I am now, by the afternoon and early evening I will be feeling it, physical

Lots of things going on in all of our worlds now. From the hustle and bustle of what the Fall and Winter Seasons bring, football games, kids back in school and college, thinking about the holidays, which all seem to roll into one another, rather than be separate as the used to be... It seems Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years are now portrayed together at at once in our retail markets. You look around all of the wide array of stores, and there are all of the above holiday "themed" supplies sitting beside one another, or across the isle's from each other. That seems to be the "theme" of our lives now... hurry, hurry, hurry... no time to waste... not a moment too soon... not an hour of rushing but a lifetime of flying through the years, and one morning you wake up... half of your life "over" with, and you wonder where all of those years went to. Your kids are grown, and they have children of their own. Your teenage years, your

I have been waning and waxing on posting anything to do with the political scene or about the upcoming Presidential Election simply because of those views being so very personal and emotional for people. At first, I thought they also really did not belong here, but yes what is going on as far as the election most certainly DOES effect people with chronic illnesses, pain, the disability folks that are involved in this, and others that are not getting the health care coverage or even the health care they need in this nation. We have so many foreign countries that take better care of their own people than we do. Again, greed is the word I use for those who would rather line their own pockets, than pull a little hope out of those pockets for the people that need it the most. For the most part, if you are just at the "poor" level up to the middle working class that seem to pay the most for everything, your health care probably is none, or is very expensive, or probab

 I had a "temporal artery biopsy" yesterday due to some double vision issues I have been having for about7 months. this is what happened yesterday am in the Operating Room right when I was waking up from surgery!!! This doctor I can attest has the personality of a wall, in fact worse. but, I found out he has a temper like heck also... thus this is the post about my experience coming out of the OR... Well the most part is over. I had the biopsy yesterday am. All went well but dammit I have a fairly long incision right at my hairline on the right side at my temple.. The worst part is dammit he had to shave a tiny bit of hair off right there and of course you can see that. It happens to be on the side of my head that tends to be thinner as far as my hair goes than the left. Since my hair has grown out, I will be able to cover it up I think but I am still upset that they had to shave it at all. He never told me that, but I already knew due to my own research. I should have the

With each and every one of us that have jobs, homes, family, children, and so forth, we tend to run on "empty" at times. We stretch ourselves out way too thin, offering to take care of so many things that one day we realize we often can't keep up with. Yet, anyone with a chronic illness and/or usually running hand in hand chronic daily pain, we can be "running on empty" just by getting up in the morning at times. I am so fortunate as this time that I am able to climb out of bed (and in fact I am not sleeping anyway very much), and thus I am able to go through the business and the "bustle" of daily living. All too often daily living for those who are well, and daily living for those like myself or worse, are much different scenario's. We may take 15 minutes to honestly just literally crawl out of bed due to pain or stiffness. For me, I must get up and walk off the stiffness and aching of my ankles and toes, and then shake off the fingers, thumbs and

I realize that not one person has been "invited" or actually became a reader of my blog as of yet. There are many reasons for that, most of which although it has been "up" online for a rather long while, I have not been about physically for the most part of this past couple of years to think about sitting long enough at my computer to be able to write a blog. I may have been able to write some, here, there and yonder, but I know that readers, just like myself, want to read the latest and greatest. As a reader, you want to know the entire "agenda", not just a few pieces here and there. Thus, my goal was to find out what exactly all was wrong with me, (or so I hoped), then do what I needed to do, to get out of pain, as much as possible, and get as well as much as humanly possible. Although, anyone suffering with chronic pain and/or illness(es), realize that trying to get all of the facts together, then correlate those with all of the specialists

As I begin this journey, or rather I say continue this journey, I am embarking upon a new "raging river" per se'. I have posted, blogged, written on Face Book, had my own MSN and Yahoo sites and groups, running the entire gamut of the latest and greatest in the realms of communicating with other "like-minded individuals". Yet, it is NOT the "latest and greatest" that brings me to do this new challenge. It is a desire to reach out to you, the audience, with my own very personal powers of what has ailed me off and on for many years. Years before I even knew what "chronic illness and pain" were...definitely well before the majority of us knew one thing about Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Degenerative Joint and Disc Disease, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and even MS (Multiple Sclerosis) was an illness we really new very little about. I can recall the very first time I ever heard of anyone that I knew having Lupus. She was bac