Are your choices creating a legacy of disease or a legacy of health? Good habits today may lead us toward disease prevention for future generations. As both an autoimmune mom and grandma I, like many of you, conquer obstacles through self-care strategies.

Well, I’ve certainly learned a few things having fallen down the rabbit hole…and I’d like to share how to pop up on the other side with fewest brain cell defections as possible.

Sure enough, he had Celiac Disease. He also had reflux, several ulcers, and was a complete digestive mess. It was no wonder he was angry! If my insides were this inflamed and awful, I would have been a bit crabby and unproductive too! This came right before his 7th birthday.

I believe that my son and daughter saved my life. During this difficult period of my life, all I wanted to do was go home and be a mother to my children. Knowing how much they needed me, strengthened my resolve to claw my way back to them.

I was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis almost 20 years ago now. At the time I was shocked, but didn’t really comprehend the magnitude of what this chronic disease meant with regard to my life, my husband’s life, and that of my children. As I reflect back on these years, I wish I ‘d done many things differently.

I was up at 6 am with the kids and by 9 am, I was lying on my floor asleep and drooling as the toddlers crawled around on mommy.  My hair was falling out, I was steadily gaining 2-3 pounds a month, my skin was turning to leather, I was depressed, my joints and muscles ached, and I was freezing cold all the time. My kids were losing their mom and my husband was losing his partner.

Managing four kids while being sick has been difficult. Before I knew I had Sjögren's, I barely got through my day and always wondered why I was so tired or thirsty.

Sure, Lucy doesn't know--at least not yet--that I can't go hiking with her when she's older because of my fibromyalgia. That sometimes holding her is incredibly painful because my hands and wrists hit a new level of pain and muscle spasms around the same time she turned 3 months old.

I do get frustrated when I can’t attend any soccer games because it’s too cold, but I can host the Daisy troop in my kitchen for world-class cookie decorating. I tell my kids that it’s good to talk about how mad it makes us. But, I also remind them that if I go to an event that I shouldn’t, I could end up in bed for days.

At a year and a half postpartum I’m feeling more optimistic about balancing life as the mother of a toddler and coping with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. I remember last year coping with this condition wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. I was dealing with symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and it was taking a while to get back to a regular monthly cycle.