AMBULATION

Symbolic interaction, 2004

While biomedical research reifies bodily movement in the lives of people with chronic illness as "functional mobility, " our analysis of biographical osteoarthritis narratives uncovers a moral commitment to movement as both a moral imperative and a technique to preserve a self threatened by the limits arthritis places on daily life. A content analysis of twelve interviews with arthritis sufferers shows that, in addition to the practical and emotional challenges of living with arthritis, these actors face the daily challenge of displaying their understanding of embodied fluidity-the timely and fluid movement through time and space-as a virtuous practice. Our informants use the movement mandate-the commitment to move despite the pain it may cause-to produce themselves as competent social and moral actors sacrificing the demands of their bodies to meet social expectations, and they conduct this performance in front of several audiences: the self and specific and generalized others. For these informants, in both private and public realms, the experience and the management of pain and physical limitation are profoundly social and accountable matters, as they affect interactions with others, their own social identities and moral integrity, and their relations with self as they seek to balance their arthritis pain with their past, present, and future self-concepts.

Sociology of Health & Illness, 2002

This paper examines the meanings of symptoms for people with osteoarthritis. The study comprised 27 in-depth interviews with men and women aged between 51 and 91 years (median age = 76) and draws on previous sociological work about experiences of chronic illness, disability and ageing. In particular, the distinction proposed by Bury between 'meaning as significance' (the significance and connotations associated with illness) and 'meaning as consequence' (problems created for the individual by activity restriction and social disadvantage), provides a useful framework to examine the biographical aspects of symptoms. We found that older respondents portrayed their symptoms as a normal and integral part of their biography, but they also talked about the highly disruptive impact of symptoms on their daily lives. We consider how these co-existing accounts of meaning make sense in the context of cultural connotations of ageing and the implications for meeting health care needs of older people with osteoarthritis.

Women’s Health Advocacy, 2019

Because the text is built from life, it has no simple story line, but travels circuitously through the intentions and coincidences of its author and her topic. Understandings collect, develop, and deepen along the way.-Marjorie L. Devault, Editor's introduction to Marianne Paget's A Complex Sorrow When I was a sophomore in college, taking notes in a Near Eastern studies class one Tuesday afternoon, my right hand suddenly became numb and cramped. A dedicated student, I shook out my right hand, glared at it, and hastily shifted to taking notes with my left hand, assuming whatever was going on with my right hand would go away. Instead, over the next few weeks it worsened. I had to quit my job at a local deli/grill because I could no longer perform the chopping, cutting, and assembling duties required. Within a few weeks, life was back to normal: I had a new job as a waitress and was able to write with the right hand again. While I can remember all of this now, after having read journal entries that jogged my memory, I had completely forgotten about this episode for years, and didn't rediscover this moment from my past until I read those journals long after a years-long, probably-related struggle I experienced in graduate school (and occasionally still), with shooting pains and numbness in both hands, wrists, and arms. My writing about that seemingly isolated health event in college helped me process a scary and painful experience at the time, and later, it allowed me to piece together a timeline of causation that has helped me better understand my body and the repetitive stress injuries it seems particularly prone to experiencing.

Rethinking Osteopathic Practice. Book One: Motion & Mechanics , 2013

Book One covers mechanics and motion, including clinical motion assessments, and reveals the importance of patients’ handedness to how osteopaths assess them and understand their presentations. The internal mechanisms and patterns of gait are explored, together with a comprehensive examination of the clinical issues around leg length disparity, where new evidence is presented. Research on the role of the diaphragm and breathing in biomechanics is presented. Book One also introduces the syndrome that osteopaths will encounter commonly but will be treating without realising – the Retropattern Syndrome. There are specific chapters on the upper extremity – arguably the most complex functional unit of the human body. These chapters include detailed sections on treating Frozen Shoulder and Impingement Syndromes.

This is a class assignment that I created on the basis of my publications about fictional osteobiographical narratives. It includes a list of case studies that would serve as good subjects for such narratives. The students who wrote the narratives reported strong engagement with the assignment, and two of them will be presented at a regional conference this Fall.

Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2014

Objective: Despite the burden of rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs), these conditions probably deserve more attention from public health authorities in several countries including developed ones. We assessed their contribution to disability. Methods: Data on disabilities associated with RMDs were extracted from the national 2008-2009 Disability-Health Survey of 29,931 subjects representative of the population in France. We used the core set of disability categories for RMDs of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for analysis. Diagnosis and disabilities were self-reported. We assessed the risk of disability associated with RMDs using odds ratios (ORs) and the societal impact of RMDs using the average attributable fraction (AAF). Results: Overall 27.7% (about 17.3 million people) (95% CI 26.9-28.4%) of the population reported having RMDs. The most prevalent RMDs were low back pain (12.5%, 12.1-13.1) and osteoarthritis (12.3%, 11.8-12.7). People reporting osteoarthritis were more disabled in walking (adjusted OR 1.9, 1.7-2.2) than those without. People reporting inflammatory arthritis were more limited in activities of daily living (from 1.4, 1.2-1.8 for walking to 2.1, 1.5-2.9 for moving around). From a societal perspective, osteoarthritis was the main contributor to activity limitations (AAF 22% for walking difficulties). Changing jobs was mainly attributed to neck pain (AAF 13%) and low back pain (11.5%). Conclusion: RMDs are highly prevalent and significantly affect activity limitations and participation restrictions. More effort is needed to improve care and research in this field.

ABSTRACT This autoethnographic story is constructed around the skeleton of a play performed at the 2014 Doing Autoethnography conference. I delve into, and write through, the difficult experience of coming to terms with the chronic illness Dystonia. When readers absorb my explanation of how I have chosen to live my life, it becomes apparent that my attitude towards the illness is a departure from the expected “acceptance of disability.” I consider Dystonia to be a disruption to my life. I “acknowledge” Dystonia because it is some- thing that will forever be present; I will never “accept it.” I critically examine the notion of “normal,” and outline how my “normal” has changed. Throughout the article run reflections on my evolving “movement.” KEYWORDS Autoethnography; Dystonia; Olympian; Head injury; Emotional recovery

HSS Journal, 2012

Rheumatology, 2017

Thinking points for aching joints Poetry on Rheumatology The spectrum of rheumatological disorders today we shall explore, And, thus, improve our understanding quite a bit more. A number of systems can be involved by a single disease, And, thus, we ought to pinpoint the culprit and help put the patient's life at ease. A patient with livedo reticularis and a malar rash came into your outpatient department, And had raised levels of antinuclear antibodies. Unfortunately, the patient also had seizures and psychosis, Their ultimate diagnosis being systemic lupus erythematosus. Improvement she did have with NSAIDs and steroids, And was told that certain drugs she must avoid.