It is Official - I am a "Platinum Ambassador" for the Arthritis Foundation!!!

I was just totally on Cloud Nine yesterday afternoon! I received an email from someone I've became quite good friends with over the last about 9 months or so. She emailed to tell me that I had qualified for the "Platinum" Ambassador Activist, which is an elite group of Advocates!

I had tried to spend lots of time this past nine months or so, putting myself into the throws of Advocacy, Activism, Ambassadorship, .... volunteering to keep me mine as clear of "brain fog" as possible! Plus I also used my "voice" and Advocacy work to help me not think about the horrid event on March 26th 2014.

It has been a very long way to get this far from Jim's wreck, and have some type of "normalcy" to our lives. We still have a great deal more to go, and our "normal" will never be what we considered a "normal day" again. But, through the pain, tears, the smiles, and frowns, and all that has been in between. Each day has been one step, one moment, one hour, one day, at a time.

Yet, we are blessed that as bad as it really is, it could have been much worse. He can walk, with a cane. Not for very long right now. But, as time goes by, we do have hope still that much of the pain, the stiffness, the ability to be "whole" again.

So, through the "window" pane of activism, and my role of becoming an Ambassador for the Arthritis Foundation (now to find out I made Platinum) feels like an honored victory for myself, and my family.

My Mom and Jim are so very proud of me. They have witnessed all I've done to be as an Advocacy and Voice!

So, that means in March, I get to go back to Washington D.C.!!!!! The Annual Summit will be there again next March, and I'll have my "warm, fuzzy, walking boots ready! Last year I sure wished I had taken them, so this time they WILL BE with me!!!

So, that gives me another realm of my "voice" I will work on throughout 2015! There are lots of new things in store from the Arthritis Foundation, and I am elated to be a part of such a worthy organization.


I will keep you informed of course as time goes on. My blog will be a huge part of my voice, and now I have something else to put into my book, that I hope to finish up by the end of 2015!

http://www.arthritisfoundation.org

Join Us at the Annual "Jingle Bell Run" in Ft. Worth TX at Burnett Park TODAY!!!!!

I so wished I could go. I have been just in such horrid pain with I guess a very bad Lupus/RA flare, and Jim is not feeling the very best, so as much as I want to be there in person, I will be there in heart and spirit!!! 

I will keep everyone updated as everything takes place. It will be a fun time for everyone, so please have a great day and you can see it all at the "Jingle Bell Run".

by the way, see the website for ALL of the locations of the run across the nation also!!!!!!   http://www.arthritis.org/get-involved/jingle-bell-run-walk/

http://fortworthjinglebellrun.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1112128

There for Me...

As any writer knows, sometimes things don't play in your mind as maybe they should be. And where inspiration comes only a true writer can see. A silly TV show that went "viral" for many seasons... and for years I never saw any of the episodes. But, this evening as I watched one of the reruns. Something spoke so deeply to me, that I could not even lay down and sleep. I had to get up and put it down on "paper"... Now some may "get the wrong impression" when they read this... it has NOTHING to do with my life now or anyone in my life now. But, it hits me from way back when... I thought fairy tales never came to an end.... So this is a "song" I heard in my head tonight... and I am compelled to post it here. I started not to, and just put it up on my blog... and it will definitely be there also... but for now, here it is:


There for Me...

When you needed me, I was there for you…
And you pleaded for me, cause you always knew…
When you would call, I could hear your words of sound…
Yet, when I called out, you were no where to be found.

We lit the sky up with love in the words…
Sounds came crashing down, as I walked towards…
To find out I was there for you…
Yet, where you were I never knew.

We took that plunge when you were so young…
Singing the songs that should never have been sung…
You turned around and saw me, and even then I knew…
You would cling to me, yet I could never cling to you.

Many nights I seemed to fly so high…
Above the moon and Earth, into to another sky…
As I turned to see the stars within your eyes…
All I could see was all those sad goodbyes…

When you needed me, I was there for you…
Tumbling down the mountain side, I bled for two…
Me and you should have never have been…
And now I feel the pain, it’s as bad as it was, way back then.


Then the darkness fell all around…
The chaotic world, yet not a single sound…
Of those words you said back then…
Did you mean them, when you said them way back when.

I came to you wanting to journey through space and time…
Make my life out, just like Cinderella in a nursery rhyme…
Yet I turned around and then I knew…
That was way back then, but you never had a clue…

The years have flown by and in those many nights of tears…
I cried out to you, yet you never feared…
You thought you and I would always be…
And even now you still try to cling to me.

When you needed me, I was there for you…
And you pleaded for me, cause you always knew.
When you would call, I could hear your words so dear…
And in those words it took me many years to fear…

That for me, never you meant to be…
What you promised, was to always cling to me…
And now in my lonely nights I silently pray…
Never tried to hate you, but I found no other way.

To get over you for so many years…
Through painful nights and all too many tears…
I fell from my own mountain top, and finally seen the end.
Of what I thought, was not even there back then.


When I needed you, you were never there for me…
I could not see the forest, for you stood as the tallest tree..
Blocking this vision, for too many years…
So what I cling to now, is what I know I fear.


Rhia Steele 12/2/2014

Fighting "Monstritis": Tucker Beau, 6, and his loved ones on their juven...

‪#‎GivingDecember2nd2014Tuesday‬

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https://www.facebook.com/GivingTuesday?pnref=story

#‎GivingDecember2nd2014Tuesday‬

My "giving" today will be "giving everyone" an idea of how to give on this "Giving Tuesday!" Whether you are giving a "tip" to your guy that takes the groceries to your car, your beautician a larger tip, giving to one or more of your favorite charities, giving a lift up to an elderly person out of a chair, giving a hand putting a neighbors trash out at the curb.... maybe giving a hug to everyone you see today, and a handshake and tell them you appreciate their "service"... at the pharmacy, the bank, the doctors office... whether you give a lunch today through a local food bank, or donate blood to the blood bank.... it is not how LARGE OR SMALL the gift is... it is the "giving" that counts. Give a compliment, give your heart, give unselfishly, give information, directions, information, there are SO MANY ways, you can give of you, your time, yourself... just give... 

I have posted some places on my Facebook page that are non-profits and so forth that you can give to...whether it be the Arthritis Foundation, The Diabetes Foundation, to AIDS, to the homeless, to the people who need, and to those who just need a smile... give hope... for giving of oneself, is the gift of hope!!!

This NATION and this WORLD above ALL NEEDS HOPE!!!! It can start with "you" and "giving Tuesday!!!!" 

And it would be so incredible if giving Tuesday, turned into giving Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the holiday, the month, the season, the year.... just one "good deed" can bring millions... so please take a moment, and give... a prayer, a "thumbs up"... Hope... 

With my gift to you today... Rhia... 

"A Sweaty" Drenching and Fearful way to Wake Up...

Well, I have fussed and griped about this "sudden onset" of where I wake up in a drenching, T-Shirt, jogging pants, sheets, blanket, hair, bed kind of SWEAT!!! It has been happening now for about 4 years or so. I have asked all of my doctors and no one really gave me a straight answer. In fact, until today, I finally found out a real medical "name" for it! It is called "Primary or Secondary hyperhidrosis"!!!!

I happen to be glancing at some posts that came into the "Inspire" web blog site by the Arthritis Foundation. Low and behold there is a new post titled "Drenching Sweat"!!! So, I clicked to go and see if anyone had posted anything that might help point me to some kind of answer. I ALWAYS GET, could be your "chronic illnesses", RA, Lupus, etc... OR maybe "hormones"... these are NOT hot flashes... I am bone chilling, shaking, freezing at the same time sweating enough to wet towels down... even my robe last week one morning was totally drenched!

And the "weird" part of all, I usually NEVER SWEAT!! Very Rarely, even in the HEAT and HUMIDITY OF TEXAS, I may sweat a bit at my hair line in the Summer. But, I can work outside in the yard, etc... and yes maybe a bit, but NOTHING like this!!!

Anyway, one of the ladies had posted a link to Web M.D., that described it and gave a name for it. And yes "several" of my medications certainly could be a cause, plus the RA, Lupus and so forth.

The "oddest" thing, is the medication I use for Sjogren's. It is supposed to "help" with my salivary glands... it is called generically "Pilocarpine" or name brand Salagen. It TOPS the list with several other medications as being known to cause this!!!!  Happy, NO! I am not happy. I am not really sure that the medication does much for my salivary glands and other moisture as far as nose and eyes. But, it could certainly be a cause for this totally odd, off the wall, SWEATY RA chick!

5 Talk Street - NBC 5 #605 E - Arthritis Foundation - Jingle Bell Run/Walk