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Another Patient Journey: 2019 was a good year
Picking up the story from my last blog Was 2019 really that bad? my doctors advised that I should stop the TNF blocker drugs, that had enabled me to live a normal life for the past three years, before undergoing cancer surgery. That made sense. These drugs work by dampening the immune system. I could…
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A new F-word: FASTING – Love or Hate?
Next week is Ash Wednesday when the Christian fasting period called Lent begins. I’ve never fasted. It always seemed rather uncomfortable and difficult. Until now I couldn‘t see any benefit and feel that managing AS I have enough to do. The more I read and try things out, the more convinced I am that diet…
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Am I really what I eat?
In the bad old days when life seemed to be filled only with pain, I used to comfort myself and find moments of peace with the thought: „I am not my body!“ If I could see myself at a level of consciousness where my soul and not my body was in charge, then the pain…
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Have Disease – Target – Kill Something
I recently came across an interview with Siddhartha Mukherjee, the Indian-American physician, oncologist and author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. I would like to share his thoughts. His ideas show how medical research could be changing its analytical paradigm and how this change might open a path to better care…
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What keeps me healthy?
In Switzerland we believe that foxes are clever. Near the village where I live there is a family of foxes living on the border between the woods and a corn field, and in Spring the young foxes come out and play in the evenings. Last year I managed to get a picture, which I’d like…
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Fatigue, Friends and other F-words
It’s been so long since my last blog. What happened to my intention to write every two weeks? What’s being going on? Well, I’ve been busy – read on and find out! – and if I’ve not been busy, I’ve been exhausted and dragging myself from one task to the next. Those who suffer from…
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16 x 4,000m summits in 5 days
Only 18 months after requiring a wheelchair at the airport, I have accomplished my dream of climbing several of Switzerland’s highest peaks – 16 in all – in only five days. I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) two years ago, and wrote about coming to terms with the diagnosis in a first post, and…
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How it all started
There are big unforeseen events in our lives that we never forget. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard about 9/11, when John Lennon or Ueli Steck died? In the same way, I bet everyone with Spondyloarthritis or other nasty diseases remembers when they got the diagnosis, and learnt that the cause…
A life free from the burdens of rheumatic disorders
