Author: Annie

My nursing career ended when I was diagnosed with lupus. Armed with a few almanacs and a thesaurus, I stuffed myself at the banquet table; began another career as a freelance writer, and advocate for people with chronic illnesses. This blog showcases my healthcare knowledge and combines it with my writing background. anowlin@mac.com
ALL POSTS, Coronavirus, Immune, LUNGS, POTPURRI, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Autoimmunity, meet COVID!

Annie

Who knows? Who knows what the long-term effects of having recovered from COVID infections are? One symptom of COVID is the effect it has on our lungs and in some cases, people need be hospitalized and in severe cases be placed on a ventilator. What’s a ventilator? It’s a machine that can breathe for you so your lungs can rest and heal from COVID-19. The people who are at most risk for this complication of COVID-19 are those over 65, have pre-existing health conditions, have autoimmune diseases and the infirm. Many look askance at someone who mentions a product on … Continue reading Autoimmunity, meet COVID!

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Autoimmunity and insurance

Annie

Today, approximately 6 millions of people with TRICARE East Insurance will have insurance coverage for AVISE testing. What? Yes, members of TRICARE East will have access to all of the laboratory testing if their physicians want them to have blood tests to determine the presence or absence of lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. They have also become known for the development of bloodwork to rule “in” a diagnosis of Fibroymalgia. What does this mean? The sooner you have a diagnosis for those strange symptoms of, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Multiple sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis or ulcerative colitis, the sooner effective, life-altering … Continue reading Autoimmunity and insurance

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Annie

Is It Fibromyalgia? How Can I know? Anyone with fibromyalgia knows ever-too-well that there’s no simple blood test, CT, MRI or x-ray to tell you if fibromyalgia is the cause of your pain. What they can tell you is that it is often called fibromyalgia syndrome, ‘fibrositis’ or ‘psychsomatic rheumatism’, and ‘neurasthenia ‘ The term fibromyalgia was originally coined as a syndrome when there were unexplained aches and pains, numbness and tingling, fatigue, headaches and any other bothersome symptoms which had no explainable cause. The symptom many find the hardest to deal with is often called ‘fibro-fog’ characterized by a … Continue reading

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Just a little love

Annie

When we stop and slow down the pace of our busy lives (as we have been forced to do with the sheltering in place that has been required of us recently with COVID-19-and just with ANY stressful situation), we have become closer to family, and realize the wonders of each blade of grass-at least I have tried to notice these things. This video shows the power of pure love, the power of slowing down for the little things in life, the power of laughter and a completely stress-free moment. It has been shown that blood drawn after laughing shows less … Continue reading Just a little love

ALL POSTS, Coronavirus, Immune, LUNGS, POTPURRI, To read full article, click on leave a comment, To see FULL article, click on article title, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The challenges of COVID-19

Annie

Long ago we learned that COVID was quite the contagious virus and we learned its symptoms making us experts in viral epidemiology, (what a mouthful!) social distancing, contact-tracing and handwashing! Our country asked, we gave. We sheltered in place. Now, it’s time to get back to our old ‘norm,’ as this ‘new norm’ takes too much ‘getting used to.’ But, then there are others of us who are hesitant to dip their toes in the waters. After all, if we don’t get this reentry thing right, there will be a resurgence of cases and we’ll be set back some months, … Continue reading The challenges of COVID-19