About 3 years ago, my voice started getting hoarse now and then. I’d be talking to someone, just minding my own beeswax and boom — suddenly, I was croaking. It felt like there was something small or ...

Of all the things about rheumatoid arthritis I hate (and there are too many to list here), fatigue has to be one of the worst. RA-related fatigue is not being tired. You can relieve “tired” with ...

Essentially, he was asking what makes RA different from the type of arthritis that you usually hear about: osteoarthritis. I know my friend meant well when saying this, but it caused me to have some ...

Living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) means adjusting... literally everything. Over the years, I’ve found some of the parts of getting dressed that once were easy (clasps, hooks, zippers) have gotten ...

In exploring available medication options for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the off-label use of low-dose naltrexone (LDN) has gotten a lot of attention in recent years. Naltrexone is a medication ...

Donica Liu Baker, MD, FACR is a board-certified rheumatologist practicing the art of medicine in her beloved hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. With roots in the field of Kinesiology, she developed an ...

The morning after I had injured my knee, I woke up -- unable to get out of bed. I felt sharp pain throughout my body - like pieces of glass, or knives. With help, I got out of bed, and a friend sent ...

Let me tell you — I’ve had a time-and-a-half with this uterus. As I detailed in my previous article, in a last-ditch effort, we tried an IUD to control my abnormal bleeding. How do you think it turned ...

I thought the pain in my throat would eventually go away, but it didn’t. The Strep test this time was negative and so were the two COVID tests. I had been given a second round of antibiotics followed ...

This can begin even before diagnosis, as there are frequently long waiting periods for new patient appointments with a rheumatologist. As there is a national shortage of rheumatologists 1, it is not ...

I’m amazed when I stop and think about how many “assistive devices” I now have in my life. I’m not talking about canes, crutches, or walkers (although I own all of those and have used then on occasion ...

Four years ago, I bought a bike. Sounds simple enough. Although I hadn’t ridden on a real bike in decades, it seemed like a fun way to be more active. With knees plagued by osteoarthritis, I had been ...