Ava Meena

"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...

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...

Lupus can go after any part of the body; it’s notorious for going after the kidneys. But in many cases, it affects the heart. Lupus can cause a wide range...

I know that my days are numbered, and I have no idea how high that number goes. It’s not fun to think about, but it’s true. I only get so...

I've had so many negative experiences at medical appointments that I've stopped counting. I have gone through ridiculous wait times, difficult blood draws, doctors who blew me off, belittled me...

Treating lupus can require so many steps that sometimes I feel like my appointments and never-ending phone calls to medical offices should count toward my daily workout goal. It's that...

Have you heard of the spoon theory? It started when Christine Miserandino was trying to explain to a friend what it’s like to live with lupus on a daily basis...

Years ago, I heard someone say that going on vacation is just going out to eat in different cities. I disagreed with them for many reasons, but mainly because I...