Trekking the Rheumatoid Arthritis Jungle with Stefanie's Coaching

Navigating a chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis can feel like trekking through a dense forest with no map. But what if we told you that there's a way to cut through the thickets, make sense of the path, and move forward with purpose and optimism? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Stefanie, a family nurse practitioner, and rheumatoid arthritis coach who helps her clients do just that. With her guidance, we explore the complex impact of this inflammatory disease on the body and learn about her unique approach to coaching.

Listen as we recount the transformative adventures of Stefanie's clients, like the brave soul who overcame her fear of injections and the career woman who successfully balanced her professional life with her chronic illness. We share stories of individuals who, with personalized support and the right strategies, have navigated the deep waters of rheumatoid arthritis. From reversing a misdiagnosis to transitioning to Medicare while managing their condition, these stories offer a beacon of hope and demonstrate the power of having a guide by your side.

This journey may be challenging, but you don't have to go it alone. We share practical advice, tips, and resources to help you live a full and fulfilling life despite your arthritis. We also emphasize the importance of seeking and accepting help — from talk therapy and support groups to personalized coaching services like Stefanie's. Remember: the sun always rises, and there's always a way forward. So, join us, grab your metaphorical hiking boots, and let's chart your path through the forest together.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Coach | RA Health Coaching & Life Coaching Services

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Transcript

Jen: 0:42

Hi my Spoonie Sisters. Today I have Stefanie, the Rheumatoid Arthritis Coach, with me to chat, and what I want to start out with is reminding you that rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect more than just your joints. In some people, the condition can damage a wide variety of body systems, including our skin, eyes, lungs, heart and blood vessels. So, hi, Stefanie, how are you?

Stefanie: 1:10

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm great. How are you?

Jen: 1:14

I am doing well. I'm so glad to have you back again, and so let's give a little introduction to who you are and about your rheumatoid arthritis coaching.

Stefanie: 1:28

So my name is Stephanie. I am a family nurse practitioner living with rheumatoid arthritis and when I was first diagnosed I was pretty devastated. It took me quite a while to find my way through the disease, figure out how to navigate it, and I decided that it was just too difficult and I really wanted to help other people navigate it. So I started doing rheumatoid arthritis coaching. When I first started it was in person and now I'm exclusively online and it's been amazing.

Jen: 1:59

I love it. So can you tell me a little bit about the purpose of why you do what you do and what your services are exactly?

Stefanie: 2:11

Sure. So, like I said, my services involve navigating pretty much whatever trials people women living with rheumatoid arthritis have, because everybody's a little bit different and today we're going to share some stories, so you'll hear a lot about that. But you know, some people it's the disease itself, some people it's the medications and then some people it's their life outside of RA that's really struggling because of the diagnosis. So I love to work with people to figure out how to live their best life, whatever that means to them, with RA.

Jen: 2:45

I love it. I love it. Okay, so we're going to dive in and talk a little bit about some success stories, and I hear you have some doozies for us, so do you want to jump in with that?

Stefanie: 2:58

I sure do so. Before I start, I just want to let you and your audience know that I either got permission from previous clients to share these success stories or I have changed their name. So you know that's a good point. So I'm not violating yeah, I'm not violating any privacy rules, and privacy is very important to me in all of my coaching practices. So the best story that I would like to open with is I had a client named Jennifer. She was a 40-year-old Caucasian female who had been diagnosed with RA about seven or eight years ago. She was started on Humira right away.

Stefanie: 3:39

Part of my services is I review labs, imaging, which is x-ray, cts, mris. I review all of the medical records and look at everything and I try to confirm or even validate that patients were evaluated appropriately, they're on the right treatment. If it's not working for them, why not? This is completely in support of medical providers. I'm not saying that people are mistreated, and it's actually not super common as I start digging but in the world we live in today, everybody is rushed and so things are often overlooked, and we can all agree on that. So I'm definitely not trying to find problems, but it really helps to have somebody experience, like me kind of dig.

Stefanie: 4:26

So I had this lovely young woman, jennifer, who was diagnosed with RA seven or eight years ago, was on Humira. Now this woman came to me because she hated taking Humira and it had nothing to do with the brand, but her particular insurance didn't really cover it. She had to pay a large amount out of pocket which we can all relate to. It was inconvenient for her lifestyle, you know. It required refrigeration and she liked to travel. She was big on camping, hiking, you know, doing outdoor things, and it was cumbersome for her to have the cooler. And we've all been there, right, we all know exactly what this is all about.

Stefanie: 5:05

And then this particular medication just made her feel kind of yuck, like she. Just she had what we call like a chronic malaise, like she just never really felt good since starting it. So I worked with her for about six months and we dug and dug and dug and through evaluating how she felt and then communicating with her providers, we did additional workups and apparently she was born with a congenital, which means you're born with a congenital hip dysplasia, which is when basically your hips just don't develop right from birth. And with her age being kind of mid 40s. She was right at the cutoff of when, just before, we started screening babies at birth for this congenital defect. But very long story short, it actually wasn't RA at all and she had this congenital birth defect and her hips were basically mush and while we worked together she ended up having bilateral hip replacements and was back on her feet off the humira reverse diagnosis. It was crazy. So go ahead.

Jen: 6:20

Wow, I'm having a hard time not having a big reaction over here. How did I mean? How did she feel about that?

Stefanie: 6:28

Yeah, for your audience. I can see the host and I know you guys can only hear, but she has some awesome faces right now. But yeah, you know, and it's, it's really common because when we go, I'm a medical professional, right. So when you come in to see me, you go in to see your doctor, your nurse practitioner, your PA. You know you have certain issues, certain complaints, certain things that you're there for. So we don't go looking for other things, right? You don't go into a nail salon and they tell you, oh, you should get your hair cut, right, they just do your nails. So it's the same thing. You don't take your car in for an oil change and they tell you you need tires. Well, sometimes they do, but that's very annoying.

Stefanie: 7:09

But I mean, when you go in with these complaints, right, you go in, you have this diagnosis of RA. You know, a lot of times health professionals just can roll with it and they want to continue your treatment. So that's kind of what happened to her. But her, her inflammatory markers and her rheumatoid factor was elevated for so many years because of this hip dysplasia and she ended up having this severe grinding and basically that was causing her labs to falsely appear abnormal or falsely get diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when it wasn't even there for everything, and so she had. She was very, very thankful to have worked with me. If you ask her, it was the best money she ever spent and it was actually a big compliment to me. It was very sweet. So anyway she's. She's much better now. I know she's living her best life.

Jen: 8:04

That's amazing and I think that's that's a testament to you and what you do. You. You do the research and you fight for her and and you want her to feel better, and Kudos to you for getting her the answers that she needed. I.

Stefanie: 8:20

Agree, that's what I do and, as a medical professional myself, it's very easy for me to communicate with doctors and other nurse practitioners. I speak the language, I have the experience. Usually it's very well received.

Jen: 8:33

Wow, okay, so that is an amazing story, and I'm sure you have many more. So who do you want to talk about next?

Stefanie: 8:41

I do so the next patient or client that I would like to talk about. Her name is Alice, and she came to me because she was on an injectable medication and she was really struggling giving herself shots. She was on a particular medication a particular medication, excuse me, that is known to be difficult to administer and quite painful to administer. And Not only was she very frustrated, but she was married, and her husband, who was very emotionally frustrated as well, so her relationship was really suffering because of not only her diagnosis but this one particular medication.

Stefanie: 9:21

So, as her coach, I worked with her every week, as I routinely do, but also I spent a lot of time talking with her spouse and her daughter, who lived in another state, and we arranged multiple family meetings with both the spouse and the daughter and the client, of Course, with her by her request. Right, I would never make somebody do that if they did not want to. So we would talk and I would collect all of this information, and then, after I collected all of the information, I put it in a very nice letter and I reached out to her rheumatologist, so basically saying you know, would you ever consider an alternative treatment, because this treatment is causing a lot of problems in her life and this particular client was actually changed to an oral option and she she was in remission on the injectable medication. She stayed in remission on the oral option and it's still doing great and her marriage is great because of it.

Jen: 10:21

That's wonderful. So I have a question for you. Did her husband ever try to give her the injection For Dino?

Stefanie: 10:29

He did, and in this case that was not helpful.

Jen: 10:34

You know, we see so many people on social media that are showing themselves injecting themselves or a significant other doing it as well, and, honestly, my husband has offered for the last 10 years. But the idea of him coming at me with a sharp object no, thank you, no, thank you. I would rather either do it myself or have a medical professional do it for me. Something about it. It's not that I don't trust him, it's that it's just terrifying to me.

Stefanie: 11:04

Well, it's a good point, because Sometimes we have to reserve the people we love for love and not for health care always.

Jen: 11:16

Regardless. Yeah, you can put my band-aid on, but you will not inject me.

Stefanie: 11:20

Yeah, I mean regardless of them being trained or not. Sometimes we have to put up boundaries to keep our Relationships where they are meant to be right, definitely definitely Okay. Well, my husband, would be a terrible shock giver.

Jen: 12:30

You know, I think part of it is. I've watched my husband have to give him self shots before and I always feel like he's doing something. I don't know if he's nicking a vein or what he's done, but I'm seeing blood trickle down his leg and I'm like no, no, no, no, no, no. When I've given myself an injection that doesn't happen. So stay away, nothing, okay. Well, that was a fantastic story as well, and I I loved that. She had a lot of Outcome.

Stefanie: 13:01

He sure did. I still keep in touch with her and I love hearing from her. That's wonderful.

Jen: 13:05

So would you like to talk about next? Yeah, I'm quite a few more, so I have another client I would love to talk about.

Stefanie: 13:12

her name is Anne, and Anne has a very professional medical career. Again, for the sake of privacy, I'm not going to share specifically what, but like me, she is a medical professional and she was really struggling because her Energy levels were quite low, her hand functioning was slightly reduced, but mostly her mindset was not ideal and she was really struggling to deal with all of those big emotions that come with having rheumatoid arthritis and managing a professional career.

Stefanie: 13:46

Now, this is definitely something that I Am very, very niche specialty in because I am a medical professional and I have struggled with managing this chronic illness and balancing my career. So I loved helping her and it was so beautiful. By the end of our time together she went back to work part-time because she was pregnant with her third child by the time we were done working together and she had a much healthier mindset and was able to cope and manage what her career brought her in those in terms of her love. That's fantastic. See, everybody needs a Stephanie in their life.

Jen: 14:26

I agree, but I'm biased. I guess I might be a little biased too, but that's because I like you. All right, so that another positive outcome. I feel like you've got many more positive outcomes for us. I do. I have a few more, If you want to read them yourself.

Stefanie: 14:47

I do have testimonials on my website, rheumatoidarthritiscoachcom, and the upper right you just click testimonials. These are not bought. These are not. I simply ask that they do it, and most of the time I'm completely flattered by what they decide to write on their own. So you're welcome to read these. But I do have another great story. I'm ready.

Stefanie: 15:08

So I have this lovely, lovely client named Mary with severe osteoarthritis, mainly in her hands. Now, typically we do work with people with rheumatoid arthritis or I do work with people with rheumatoid arthritis, but this was a very special case. Her son, who I'm going to call Jake, actually called me, and so, hey, my mom is a very special person. I'm going to call him Jake. I'm going to call him Jake, I'm going to call him Jake. And so, hey, my mom is really struggling with her debilitating arthritis. She's actually been following you on social media and she loves you. She loves your energy and all of your tips and tricks. Is there any way you would consider working with her? And, of course, I'm. I'm well trained to also work with people with osteoarthritis, so her son actually gifted her my services.

Stefanie: 16:02

Yeah, this one was really cool, this particular client. What I did is I worked with her on just tips and tricks to continue to live her best life. It was simple things, from getting an electric toothbrush to running the dishwasher twice, which, if you know me, that is totally my jam. I put the dishes in there filthy, dirty, and I always just run it twice Instead of taking time to scrub and rinse them and wash them before you load them. So, with her, her lovely son hired me. She was so thankful by the end of our time together. I do still keep in touch with her and I love hearing from her. She still uses the tips and tricks and every so often she'll even shoot me an email that she learned a new trick and just can't wait to show me, and she'll show a video of her doing it. So she's just living her best life despite her debilitating arthritis.

Jen: 17:02

I love that, and I'm guessing you shared all the gadgets and gizmos as well.

Stefanie: 17:08

I sure did, yeah, Even though the gadgets aren't totally my field, because that's really like occupational therapy and there are lovely people online that do just that but just a lot of the mindset stuff, even like running the dishwasher twice or buying paper plates or so many people with rheumatoid arthritis get really caught up in especially women that we have to cook dinner, that we have this need to cook for our families. But there's nothing wrong with going to McDonald's when you have to, and sometimes you just need to hear that.

Jen: 17:48

I can't agree more. And for the listeners out there I'm also going to say guess what? I don't make dinner. I haven't in years. My husband does all of the cooking. He enjoys it. I don't. He can lift the pots and pans easier than I can. I'm very blessed, I'm very spoiled. He works a full day at his job, comes home, cooks dinner. He's done it for years. But that's his preference and that's what works for my family, and if that works for your family too, fantastic. But we do everything we can to simplify our lives as well. Paper plates that's easier for me to lift and carry All those simple little things. They can make your day that much easier.

Stefanie: 18:33

I agree, and sometimes we just have to hear it from other people because maybe the way we were raised or something about our culture that says it's not okay, but it really is. Whatever works for you in your life, like you said.

Jen: 18:46

Absolutely, and you know you figure it out together right and you do what works for your family and that's okay.

Stefanie: 18:56

Yeah, it is okay.

Jen: 19:00

Well, I'm so glad that her son reached out to you, and that's such another amazing story. Who do you have for us next?

Stefanie: 19:09

I have a few more. So my next story is a lovely young woman named Stephanie, which is a very common name. So her she was a big traveler, a big international traveler with her spouse, who she loved very much, and was traveling all over the world for many, many years. And upon returning from a recent international trip, she developed some sort of traveling sickness which involved gastrointestinal symptoms which are very, very common and sometimes can be very, very serious. So this young lady was very sick for three or four weeks. She kind of got better, but after the GI symptoms resolved, she was still never back to her baseline and so she came to me with her husband and basically explained that she liked to travel.

Stefanie: 20:01

She was in completely perfect health before this most recent trip and then, through me working with her and communicating with all of her medical providers, we ended up finding that she did have some sort of viral infection that she did pick up while traveling, unfortunately, and that this actually triggered her to have rheumatoid arthritis. As a new start, new diagnosis, which is so unfortunate, but it does happen and sometimes, you know, primary care providers aren't always trained in this it's very niche, right. It's very specialty that when you have a very severe viral infection. This can actually trigger an autoimmune disease and sometimes they just don't know where or don't know how or why to look for that. So I communicated with all of her doctors. We ended up getting her the diagnosis, getting her a great treatment and she's doing great. She just had her second baby, which is always exciting when you have rheumatoid arthritis to have babies. But she was a really unique case because she had a viral infection triggered her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.

Jen: 21:11

So would you mind giving us a few examples of of, like a virus that could be triggering for these kind of things?

Stefanie: 21:20

Yeah, so there's actually not one specific virus in the world that is known to trigger rheumatoid arthritis, but it is known that after having a virus that makes you very ill, that it can trigger an autoimmune disease. It's not well known, it's not well understood, but people can get all sort of virologies and then it's actually very similar to what people are calling the post COVID syndrome. Now you know you've had a virus, you were very, very sick and then it triggered a syndrome after. So it's not all too uncommon to have a severe viral infection and get diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

Jen: 22:02

Well, you know, I look back on even my own experience, and in the beginning of all of my symptoms, my family physician actually thought I had a stroke infection hiding inside of my knee. And so to this day I've wondered you know I did have a stroke at one point Is that what possibly triggered it? You know, and I don't know. I don't know the right answer to that, but we hear all the time that there's different things that do actually trigger our illness to finally present itself.

Stefanie: 22:36

Well, the basics of it are that when we are really sick, our immune system sends out all of our fighters. We have an immune response which is a cascade right like a domino effect. We have T cells that go out and fight infections and sometimes the T cells don't recover basically. So that's kind of the foundation of after you're really sick. Developing an autoimmune disease is just that you just don't have immune functioning left to fight a good fight. And actually this that particular client I just talked about she had like almost no T cells when we first, when I first helped her get the work up from her medical provider and there's. I don't know that, not because they weren't a good doctor or nurse practitioner, but you just don't routinely do that in primary care when people complain of feeling sickly. It's not a routine lab that you draw, it's actually very specialized and so after requesting that they order that lab and seeing the results, it was a big eye opener.

Jen: 23:44

Wow, it's so good that you did that for her though.

Stefanie: 23:50

Yeah, it was so rewarding. And she just had her second baby. How cool was that.

Jen: 23:54

Yeah, yeah yeah, that's wonderful. All right, who do you have for?

Stefanie: 23:59

us. Next I have two more really great stories I brought for you today. So I have one woman, Ellen. Ellen came to me as a pre retiree, so by that I mean she was six months out from retiring. She had a government job that she'd worked at for the required 30 years and was about to retire in six months. This was like right at the peak of COVID, like 2021. And she had really severe rheumatoid arthritis but was trying to ease her way into retirement and really struggling with the lifestyle changes that came with retirement. Now with her, her rheumatoid arthritis was definitely a big chunk of her life and lifestyle.

Stefanie: 24:45

But that transition from full time to retirement is hard for everyone, Right, I mean it's hard no matter what.

Stefanie: 24:52

And then you throw in a chronic illness where you're entering your retirement with imperfect health. Right, Everybody thinks they're going to retire and travel the world and hike Mount Everest and go out all the time. For her, she was coming to this realization that maybe she was going to require a little more health maintenance than she was expecting. So I helped her to mentally prepare for retirement but also get all of her ducks in a row for the transition to Medicare, which is it's actually a very popular topic in all of our social media groups too. A lot of times, people are on medications they love through their PPO insurance or, you know, employee-sponsored health plan, and then they transition to Medicare and it's not covered or they struggle to get it covered. So I helped her to not only transition into retirement, but I helped her contact manufacturers, contact her medical providers, find things that were covered on her new insurance or find co-pay assistance through the companies, and we definitely helped to make her transition much smoother than it would have been without. So that was a really great story.

Jen: 26:05

And I think that's a fantastic point. Some of us are younger. We haven't reached that point where we need to start thinking about, okay, what's going to happen with this transition from our traditional insurance that we have and now we're switching over, and so I think having someone to walk along that with you, that can be life-changing if you don't know what you're doing.

Stefanie: 26:29

I think for Ellen it really was.

Jen: 26:34

You know I'm going to. I have a while. I'm in my 40s, I have a while, but I'm going to remember that when I'm ready I need to talk to Stephanie.

Stefanie: 26:43

Hopefully our Medicare system will be revamped by the time your Medicare aid.

Jen: 26:49

Yeah, yeah, have a ways to go, hopefully.

Stefanie: 26:53

So my last story that I brought, I'm going to call her Julie. Julie was a very young 20-something year old that was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at a very, very young age. I think she was either three or four years old when she was first diagnosed and she was on the same medication since she was diagnosed and as she aged into her 20s. As we all know, that transition from pediatric healthcare to adult healthcare can be really tricky and the only reason anybody would know this is either they work in healthcare, like I do, or they were a patient as a child and then stayed a patient into adulthood. So it's actually kind of tricky because you know, pediatricians and pediatric specialists work with babies and children, 19-year-olds. So she was transitioned into adult care and with the guidelines, some of the medications kind of changed as you age and also she was at this age where she wanted to start having babies right.

Stefanie: 27:55

So she came to me because, although she was in remission, she needed her long-time medications changed in order to try to conceive safely and it was difficult for her to make that transition. So I basically helped her with the mindset of the transition and then I helped her get same as before All the ducks in a row while still keeping her symptoms managed. She did end up getting pregnant and I worked with her for a very long time. She ended up having a child while we worked together and I worked with her all the way until he was one. Yeah, that story was really neat. So basically I helped her mindset transition from pediatric healthcare to adult and that was a really, really special client for me too.

Jen: 28:46

Wow. So you know we've covered all kinds of I mean, none of them are the same. Right, there's so many different clients that you've worked with, but do you feel like there might be a common theme or lesson to learn from these stories?

Stefanie: 29:04

Yeah, the lesson to learn is that, however you're feeling, you're not alone and no matter what you're going through, it's okay that it sucks, and you're not alone Because having RA is so, so difficult to navigate and it affects all aspects of our lives, and we've been there, and maybe myself and Jenny are the faces that show up in social media and on public. You know landscapes that share this with the world. You know so it looks easy for us, but we know that it's really not as easy as we make it look right. So, whatever, yeah, whatever problems you're having, you're not alone and I would love love to hold your hand and help you through it.

Jen: 29:53

Yeah, absolutely, and I'm trying to figure out where I should go with this. Do you have any general advice or even tips that you would like to share with with people struggling with rheumatoid arthritis?

Stefanie: 30:08

Yes, if you're struggling with your rheumatoid arthritis, I would start simple Just either find a talk therapist or join a support group.

Stefanie: 30:18

Sometimes being able to be anonymous in a support group is so supportive, just hearing other people's stories, even if you don't participate at all. That's how I started and it was so, so helpful to just realize that I wasn't alone and that other people live their lives with rheumatoid arthritis and that other people's lives are basically destroyed by rheumatoid arthritis and everything in between. You know, when I was first diagnosed, there was this really dark year that my life was. I mean, I felt like it was just demolished and I felt like it could never be the same and I felt like my life was ruined for like a solid year and I had a lot of medical complications during that year. I just remember feeling really alone, like I was the only person ever going through this.

Stefanie: 31:10

But once I started joining groups and being around other people, I realized that I wasn't the only one, and to see other people that like made it through it was so inspiring and just so exciting. So I would say, if you're really, really struggling, start with talk therapy or a support group. You can find one in your area that's in person or there's tons online. The online ones have come a really long way. I think we really figured that out during COVID.

Jen: 31:38

Absolutely and you know, if it's not the right fit for you, try another one. That's okay. You know some of them are huge and that can be overwhelming, or maybe you like that. Maybe you like the huge aspect where you can kind of hide in a large group. But then there's some intimate ones that range from, you know, five people to 10 people, and so just keep trying and find the right fit for yourself.

Stefanie: 32:02

I agree and, of course, if you're really, really struggling and you want personalized help, I'm available. I would love to work with you.

Jen: 32:11

So, stephanie, I know you've told me this before, but I'm having a brain, just a brain fart. How old were you when you were diagnosed?

Stefanie: 32:21

So I was formally diagnosed right around age 27 or 28. But as with, I'm sure, most of your audience, the symptoms were there a lot longer than that.

Jen: 32:35

Yeah, you know I was diagnosed formally when I was 32, but it had been off and on several years before that, where I couldn't really explain what was going on very well, because it seems like symptoms would come and go. But you know, it was after my diagnosis. I think I got the best advice. And this woman, she was elderly, she was the sweetest person I've ever met. She's now passed on.

Jen: 33:01

She didn't have rheumatoid arthritis, but she had all kinds of other health problems and just arthritis in general. And the one thing she told me is she said, jenny, I start every day with a walk, every single day. And so before her husband passed, they would get up and they would go for a walk, even if it was only around the block, even on the freezing, cold days they would bundle up and walk around that block. And she said the moment you stop moving, you die. She said I am not going to stop moving, I'm going to be that old person still walking around the block. And right up until she passed she was that person. And you know it was simple, simple advice, but I think it was absolutely the best advice I've ever been given by anyone. You have to move. That was good advice you have to move it.

Stefanie: 33:53

When I was first diagnosed somebody. We all get unsolicited advice, but somebody gave me advice that really stuck with me too and I'll share it, just because you just shared yours. So I have a friend who's a little prickly right, she's a little rough, a little prickly, but I love her and she adds something to my life that I don't have anywhere else. One day I was basically whining, I was like feeling sorry for myself, complaining to her. She said you know what, stephanie, no matter what you do today, the sun's going to come up tomorrow, so you can decide how you want to be when that sun comes up. And at first I was like you're so nasty, like I was so mad at her. But I thought about it and she was right. Like we choose how we present each day, right, we show up as our best self or not, and that sun comes up no matter what we do, and that sometimes, when I'm really really down, I think about the sun.

Jen: 34:52

Well, absolutely, and I think so many times, and we've talked about this before we mourn the life that we once had, and I think that's okay, unless you get stuck in it. There's got to be a time limit on your mourning and your pity party. There has to be a time limit. It's not healthy for your emotions, your mindset or your body. It's not healthy at all. You have to find a way to work through it.

Stefanie: 35:22

I agree there has to be a point where you find meaning, and there's a lot of research on that. But there has to be a point when you grieve and then you process your grief and then you find meaning in the grief.

Jen: 35:34

Yes, and it's okay if your grief kind of pops in a little once in a while. You know, maybe you're having a really rough month and once again you're like man, why is this hitting me again? But you can't sit in it, you just can't. The sun is coming up. You need to walk around that block. You've got to find a way to keep going.

Stefanie: 35:53

See, because you got to walk around that block, because the sun is coming up, exactly. I'm saying it's so true.

Jen: 36:03

Well, thank you so much for joining me. It has been a pleasure to have you on again. I can't wait to see what we decide to bring back to listeners again sometime. Do you have any last minute pieces of advice you'd like to leave us with?

Stefanie: 36:20

Yeah, once you stop moving, you do die, and the sun always comes up. And if you're interested in coaching with me, rheumatoidarthritiscoachcom, my services, my consults, are always free. I do have two available openings to start in January. I'm not sure when this will air, but I would love to work with you and I can't wait to meet you.

Jen: 36:45

Thank you so much. It has been my pleasure to have you on again and listeners until next time. Don't forget your spoon.