About me

I'm a middle-aged Swedish woman, humorous and with a positive approach to life despite my bunch of chronic illnesses.
I call myself "Spoonie Swede" and for those of you who doesn't know what spoonie stands for can learn all about "The Spoon Theory" by Christine Miserandino here >

I run a couple of blogs, I have a Facebook page and I'm quite active on social media which means that I really like to write, have many opinions but not much of a social life....Lol....

I live in an old house right next to the forest edge outside a small town in the northeast part of Sweden.  It's a very beautiful and scenic little town. A fairly large river flows through the city which is surrounded by mountains and, what we call "nipor", which is small but steep mountain slopes.

The most important thing in my life is to take control over my different diagnoses and get them to coexist with each other in the best way possible. I'm determined to improve my health to make it possible to continue to work fulltime.

I'm also determined to take up my crafts again, something I've always been doing but had to give up when my arms, hands and fingers were at their worst due to my RA.



Work
As I am quite isolated in my free time because of my health issues, so my work is very important to me. It makes me feel like a vital part of society.

I work as a group manager and supervisor at the National Archives of Sweden, in a department that digitizes archive materials and develops databases for both genealogical and academic research. I've been working there for more than 19 years now.

Health
My chronic companion's are: rheumatoid arthritis (RA), diabetes, cervical spondylosis, arthrosis osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis, hypothyroidism and polyneuropathy. 

The first four diseases was diagnosed in a fairly short time period 2004-2006. It was really tough a couple of years, mostly due to my diabetes and spinal stenosis.​ My diabetes proved to be very difficult to medicate properly and due to my spinal stenosis I initially only had a walking distance of 25-30 meters.

At the end of 2015, I was diagnosed with RA, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and at the same time I had developed cataract on both eyes, a fairly common consequence of diabetes. I was half blind for almost a year before I got my eye surgeries done and meanwhile I was testing different RA medications but no one worked properly.

​All this together was a hard blow mentally and I suffered a mild depression in the beginning of 2016. I've bounced back since then, although I've been hit by both neuropathy and arthrosis on top of everything else.

I hope to be able to share some tips, tricks and positivity to those in a similar position as myself through this website.

You can read more specifically about my various diagnoses here ->

​Hobbies & Interests
Blogging is obviously one of my hobbies and I have always been engaged in handicrafts of different kinds until I got problems with my hands. I'm interested in design and I love vintage, retro and recycling.

I've been fascinated by archaeology and cultural history since childhood, and I've also been very interested in WW2 and the Holocaust since my school days.

I'm politically interested and engaged in the public and social debate, mostly when it comes to right-wing extremism, human rights, animal rights and environmental issues.

If there's anything else you want to know, just send me a message or an e-mail.

XOXO