Jane in her sling, on our way out for our 15-minute daily walk. I used to wonder how long it would be before I became known around town as “that crazy rat lady.”

Jane in her cage. This was about how I felt when my disabling “arthritis” left me trapped in the house.

Jane running around fetching slices of pear from various hiding places around her cage. How I envied her acrobatics!

I made this video five weeks after dislocating my shoulder, shortly before the diagnosis of frozen shoulder that would leave me housebound for months. As if the “arthritis” wasn’t bad enough! The injury left me unable to drive, dress myself, tie my shoes, or even type. But what strikes me most about this video today are how slowly I’m moving and how sparse my eyelashes are – this was about as sick as I got.

The view from the roof where I began writing in 2012. I really loved working outside; at the time I thought I was addicted to sunshine. Now I know I was just too cold to sit inside and too tired to get up from my chair once I sat down!

Video of Arches National Park on my “Long Road Home” – the last road trip I thought I’d ever be able to take. I was in so much pain after the short walk out to this arch that it was as though my entire body was being consumed by fire – and I couldn’t wait for it to finish burning up already.

Hanging up my hockey jersey for what I thought was the last time. Note the Velcro straps attached to my right sleeve – it took me over an hour to sew those on, not an easy task when my hands hurt so badly! Before a game I would attach the back half of the Velcro around my stick and to the strips on my arm, which helped to hold my stick in place and also gave me the additional leverage I needed to manage the puck one-handed. This setup caused many people to assume that it was my right arm that had failed, but in reality it was my left that had become almost completely unusable.

The six-dollar bottle of iron pills that changed my whole life.