My Chronic Illness

Wishfully thinking, I did not want my chronic illness to impact on Max’s transition, however reality has struck and now his surgery is on hold. I have rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is an autoimmune disease, meaning that my immune system attacks my body. Mostly my joints are effected, however other systems in the body can be attacked such as the eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels. RA is very different to osteoarthritis (OA), as OA is more of a wear and tear of the joints (as you get older), compared to a RA immune attack. If you want to read / learn more - a really awesome website is Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy
Last year one of my medications Enbrel – a biologic disease-modifier anti-rheumatic medication (DMARD) – started to lose it efficacy, so my rheumatologist decided to try a new one; Humira. Since these medications are very expensive and Medicare pays for them, I had to finish Enbrel before starting Humira. When this happened, I had one of the worst flares of my 21 years of RA. I have been very limited in my ability to walk or stand for more than 5-10 minutes at a time, my pain levels has been intense as too my fatigue. In a nutshell, I have been very unwell. I stopped socialising, I had to stop working for a while, and this has put a strain on me and Max. This flare has affected us physically, mentally and financially. This is why we have had to put the surgery on hold. We just could not cope going interstate, and trying to work out who will look after whom. I feel terribly guilty about delaying the surgery, though intellectually I know this is not my fault. At the moment we don’t even have an idea when the surgery may happen.
I have now been on Humira for 2 months and it is just starting to take effect. At this stage, we still don’t know how well it will work and to what level of functioning I will get back too. I am optimistic.

DUDE Magazine – Trans Male Zine

DUDE magazine is an excellent publication that started in 2011, and the purpose of which is “to celebrate positive representation of trans guys and to share skills and knowledge within our wider community.” The first zine focus was on educating people about trans* dudes. You can find a copy of it here
DUDE magazine has two more publications on the horizon. The next one to be released, later this month, topic is on body image and diversity. The third issue is on Lovers – sex and relationships. I have written an article for it and hope that it gets published. The article is based on posts from my blog.