Ava Meena

It was a Thursday night and I was experiencing the ravages of an ear infection that seemed to go from 0 to 100 in approximately 2 hours. I’ve never had...

I recently had a flashback from the first year after my lupus diagnosis: I was lying on the couch with high pain levels and I had read an extensive list...

It didn’t take long after my lupus diagnosis for me to realize I was likely going to have some level of sun sensitivity, either from the disease or the medications...

It was a beautiful day in Munich. My husband and I were both 25 years young and excited for our first real holiday since moving abroad to Germany for his...

Do you ever feel like lupus is chiseling away at who you are? One chip at a time – getting closer to your core with each strike? Pieces falling away...

Often, my relationship with lupus feels like it’s going to take over my life. It's just too much. I recently read an article that talked about how to maintain your...

"I'm tired" is a phrase my husband and kids hear from me almost daily. I'm saddened that my illnesses have caused my family to expect my tiredness more often than...

It would be better if we never needed to advocate. Within my medical world, advocating is usually pretty straightforward. I usually advocate for myself by bringing up an issue to...

In my experiences so far, I’ve only talked about sex with my rheumatologist as it relates to pregnancy. While it does matter, sometimes greatly, whether or not I’m planning a...

My cleaning tips help me keep my home cleaner, but not sparkling clean. In my opinion, it’s not realistic to have a clean home when you have a chronic illness...

My personal balance between patient and person has been going in the wrong direction lately. I’ve never felt like the balance was perfect, even though my lupus diagnosis was 6...

I can barely keep track of my doctors anymore. I know the important ones, of course, like my primary care and rheumatologist. I have an eye doctor and a dentist...

Do you tend to have the same kind of lupus flare repeatedly? Or does it throw you for a loop, and you never quite know what to expect? I’ve found...

Humility is not a characteristic that I thought to look for in a doctor. It's not something I've found often, either. I never really thought about it or expected it...

What health issue have you spent the most time seeking treatment, only to end up with the poorest results? For me, it’s my chronic neck pain. The list of things...

I find it a little bizarre that an increase in disease activity is typically referred to as a flare or flare-up. Google’s English dictionary for flare includes definitions such as...

Treating depression can be a complicated journey. Not every medication works for every person, and the process of finding the right treatment can be grueling. People with treatment-resistant depression, or...

I dread that time of the month. Lupus has made it even worse – both the dread and the experience. Some menstrual cycles are more painful or inconvenient than others...

Sometimes, taking responsibility for your health kind of sucks. Have you been there – where you just want to do the right thing for your health but the process feels...

Many people seem to be swirling with purpose on New Year's Day. This feeling seems to start around the end of December and continues throughout January. I watch people make...