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Kate Mitchell

Text reads - Alike: The Best Way To Feel Less Alone & Better Manage Your Chronic Illness Journey (text ends).
Text reads - Alike: The Best Way To Feel Less Alone & Better Manage Your Chronic Illness Journey (text ends).
in Health &middot February 11, 2022

Alike: The Best Way To Feel Less Alone & Better Manage Your Chronic Illness Journey

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Alike: The Best Way To Feel Less Alone & Better Manage Your Chronic Illness Journey

Text reads: 14 amazing simple healthy dinner recipes (end text). In advance of moving, I compiled a list of simple healthy recipes for dinner that I made previously and liked. I figured I would share them in case you’re looking for recipes that are delicious, healthy, and easy to make if you're like me and you have chronic illnesses, especially arthritis in your hands. 
Text reads: 14 amazing simple healthy dinner recipes (end text). In advance of moving, I compiled a list of simple healthy recipes for dinner that I made previously and liked. I figured I would share them in case you’re looking for recipes that are delicious, healthy, and easy to make if you're like me and you have chronic illnesses, especially arthritis in your hands. 
in Health, Lifestyle &middot February 8, 2022

14 Amazing Simple Healthy Recipes for Dinner

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14 Amazing Simple Healthy Recipes for Dinner

Text reads: Buy my ebook for chronic health bloggers, worth $140, but buy for $10! There is also an image of the ebook cover. The ebook is named "Take Your Blog (And Income!) To The Next Level: Resources for Chronic Health Bloggers".
Text reads: Ways to promote blog posts, 2022 edition (end text). What worked five years ago doesn’t work now, and what worked two years ago might not work now. That being said, let’s talk about all the ways to promote blog posts in 2022, whether or not they be new posts. 

Ways To Promote Blog Posts: 2023 Edition

Text reads: 2021 Recent Reads, October - December (end text). Check out what one bookworm read in the last quarter of 2021 and get some great book recommendations.
Text reads: 2021 Recent Reads, October - December (end text). Check out what one bookworm read in the last quarter of 2021 and get some great book recommendations.
in Lifestyle &middot January 18, 2022

2021 Recent Reads: October-December

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2021 Recent Reads: October-December

Text reads: 6 tips for how to accept your chronic illness (end text). I personally think that the hardest part is accepting you have a chronic illness. To make that easier, I thought I would share my tips for how to accept a chronic illness, as well as what that means.
Text reads: 6 tips for how to accept your chronic illness (end text). I personally think that the hardest part is accepting you have a chronic illness. To make that easier, I thought I would share my tips for how to accept a chronic illness, as well as what that means.
in Health &middot January 11, 2022

6 Tips for How To Accept a Chronic Illness

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6 Tips for How To Accept a Chronic Illness

Text reads: The 13 best b log tools for 2022 (end text). Want the best blog tools for 2022? In this post, I'm sharing 13 tools that I used to grow my blog in 2021 that you have to use in 2022.
Text reads: The 13 best b log tools for 2022 (end text). Want the best blog tools for 2022? In this post, I'm sharing 13 tools that I used to grow my blog in 2021 that you have to use in 2022.
in Writing & Blogging &middot December 28, 2021

13 Best Blog Tools for 2022

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13 Best Blog Tools for 2022

Unfortunately, shopping online isn’t really an option right now if you want your gifts to arrive by Christmas. If you are having trouble figuring out what to buy people, or you can’t go shopping in person, you should try making some gifts! Luckily for you, this post contains thirty-six (36!) holiday gifts to make. 
Unfortunately, shopping online isn’t really an option right now if you want your gifts to arrive by Christmas. If you are having trouble figuring out what to buy people, or you can’t go shopping in person, you should try making some gifts! Luckily for you, this post contains thirty-six (36!) holiday gifts to make. 
in Lifestyle &middot December 17, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Holiday Gifts To Make

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Holiday Gift Ideas: Holiday Gifts To Make

Text reads: 10 ways to find fibromyalgia relief (end text). One of America's 4 million people with fibromyalgia shares 10 ways to find fibromyalgia relief, including 5 ways that help her personally.
Text reads: 10 ways to find fibromyalgia relief (end text). One of America's 4 million people with fibromyalgia shares 10 ways to find fibromyalgia relief, including 5 ways that help her personally.
in Health &middot December 10, 2021

10 Ways To Find Fibromyalgia Relief

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10 Ways To Find Fibromyalgia Relief

Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, chronic illness patients (end text). This post has the best gifts for someone with chronic pain or a chronic illness. I’m serious! Read on to see these 58 chronic illness gifts.
Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, chronic illness patients (end text). This post has the best gifts for someone with chronic pain or a chronic illness. I’m serious! Read on to see these 58 chronic illness gifts.
in Health, Lifestyle &middot December 3, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness

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Holiday Gift Ideas: Best Gifts for Someone with Chronic Pain & Illness

Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, gift ideas for dad (end text). If you’re struggling with shopping for your dad, I’ve pulled together this list of holiday gifts for dad.
Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, gift ideas for dad (end text). If you’re struggling with shopping for your dad, I’ve pulled together this list of holiday gifts for dad.
in Lifestyle &middot November 19, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Holiday Gifts for Dad

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Holiday Gift Ideas: Holiday Gifts for Dad

Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, personalized holiday gifts (end text). Check out these personalized holiday gift ideas, perfect for basically everyone on your list.
Text reads: Holiday gift ideas, personalized holiday gifts (end text). Check out these personalized holiday gift ideas, perfect for basically everyone on your list.
in Lifestyle &middot November 12, 2021

Holiday Gift Ideas: Personalized Holiday Gifts

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Holiday Gift Ideas: Personalized Holiday Gifts

Text reads [start]: 2021 Recent Reads, July to September [end text] Bookworm and blogger Kate the (Almost) Great reviews the books she read in Q3 of 2021.
Text reads [start]: 2021 Recent Reads, July to September [end text] Bookworm and blogger Kate the (Almost) Great reviews the books she read in Q3 of 2021.
in Lifestyle &middot November 9, 2021

2021 Recent Reads: July-September

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2021 Recent Reads: July-September

Text reads: essential social media tips for bloggers (end text). While you can have social media without a blog, you really can’t have a blog without social media. Social media is how you grow your brand and how most people find your blog. But if you want to use social media for your blog, you can’t treat social media like your non-content creator friends do. Marketing with social media is a different kind of beast.
Text reads: essential social media tips for bloggers (end text). While you can have social media without a blog, you really can’t have a blog without social media. Social media is how you grow your brand and how most people find your blog. But if you want to use social media for your blog, you can’t treat social media like your non-content creator friends do. Marketing with social media is a different kind of beast.
in Writing & Blogging &middot November 2, 2021

Essential Social Media Tips for Bloggers

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Essential Social Media Tips for Bloggers

Text reads: Easy holiday decorating ideas for when you have a chronic illness (end text) With Halloween a few days a day, it’s time to think about decorating for the holidays! It can be especially difficult to decorate when you have a chronic illness. To make that a little bit easier, I’m sharing decorating tips and holiday decorating ideas for a variety of holidays that are coming up. 
Text reads: Easy holiday decorating ideas for when you have a chronic illness (end text) With Halloween a few days a day, it’s time to think about decorating for the holidays! It can be especially difficult to decorate when you have a chronic illness. To make that a little bit easier, I’m sharing decorating tips and holiday decorating ideas for a variety of holidays that are coming up. 
in Lifestyle &middot October 26, 2021

Easy Holiday Decorating Ideas for When You Have a Chronic Illness

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Easy Holiday Decorating Ideas for When You Have a Chronic Illness

Text reads: How to blog consistently (end text) A big part of having and growing a blog is blogging consistently, also known as maintaining a consistent blogging schedule. This is especially tricky (and important) if you have a chronic illness and/or a day job! So in this post, I’m going to share how to blog consistently, as well as resources that will help you do so.
Text reads: How to blog consistently (end text) A big part of having and growing a blog is blogging consistently, also known as maintaining a consistent blogging schedule. This is especially tricky (and important) if you have a chronic illness and/or a day job! So in this post, I’m going to share how to blog consistently, as well as resources that will help you do so.
in Writing & Blogging &middot October 19, 2021

How To Blog Consistently

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How To Blog Consistently

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Kate the (Almost) Great

Chronic health lifestyle blog

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Dos and don'ts for when someone in your life is di Dos and don'ts for when someone in your life is diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis! What are some that you would add?⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: "So someone you know was diagnosed with Autoimmune Arthritis". Under the Do column (indicated with a green checkmark) is:⁣
"As how they feel about it⁣
Offer specific ways to help⁣
Treat them normally⁣
Ask follow-up questions⁣
Wear a mask around them when sick."⁣
Under the don't don't column (indicated with an x in a red circle) is:⁣
"Say “At least it’s not xyz!”⁣
Say that and not follow through⁣
Assume nothing about their lives has changed⁣
Conflate autoimmune arthritis with osteoarthritis⁣
Pass your cold to an immunosuppressed person".⁣
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#AutoimmuneDisease #RheumatoidArthritis #PsoriaticArthritis #AnkylosingSpondylitis #JuvenileArthritis
Weekj 26 of 2026 Weekly Scenes of a summer week Weekj 26 of 2026 Weekly 

Scenes of a summer week in Maine! So glad I work from home, which means I can work from my real home (Maine, if that wasn’t clear)

1️⃣ Lots of Harley time
2️⃣ Working from home means saving my PTO for fun things!
3️⃣ Lots of duck families (📸 my dad)
4️⃣ What a lot of my days look like - Harley and my current project (needlepoint). And, yes, I’m still in a cast.
5️⃣ Learned how to play Mahjong, which my parents love
6️⃣ Lake views on the 4th

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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣⁣⁣

⬛⁣⁣⁣

IDs:
1️⃣ Harley the golden retriever on a deck as seen through some plants
2️⃣ Kate takes a selfie
3️⃣ A duck with little ducklings following on a lake
4️⃣ Harley coming up to Kate. Her legs are out on an ottoman, 1 foot in a walking cast, and an in-progress needlepoint project
5️⃣ Looking down at a Mahjong table with the game set up
6️⃣ A kayak on the shore of a lake 

#MaineTheWay #MaineSummer #Needlepoint #MaineLife
Living with chronic pain is really hard. You’re wi Living with chronic pain is really hard. You’re winning every day you’re still here.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: The background image is a lake at sunset. Text reads what's above the first square and also "katethealmostgreat".⁣
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#ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis
I've been spending a fair amount of time at my foo I've been spending a fair amount of time at my foot surgeon's office this year, and boy has it been messing with my head. ⁣
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I spent a lot of time from 2001-2010 dealing with my left foot. Long story short, it took until this foot surgeon saw me in 2010 after fixing this foot for me to be diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. But I spent those 9 years going from doctor to doctor, having surgery after surgery, trying to figure out what was causing my pain and to fix it. ⁣
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Was it the tarsal coalition? Did I have another chronic health issue? Etc. ⁣
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I spent from age 10 to 19 unsure what exactly was wrong with me and in huge amounts of pain. We thought we figured it out, and then something else happened. ⁣
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We know exactly what is wrong with this foot this time around: in 2024, I got 3 stress fractures, and no one put me in a boot. They almost fully healed before breaking in 2025, and then the same thing happened in 2026. ⁣
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This is a different part of the foot than I used to deal with, but any problems with my feet and especially my left foot messes with me. While this doctor eventually fixed the problems and even got me diagnosed with RA, every time I go back to his office, I have to fight not to become 17 again. ⁣
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PTSD is a bitch.⁣
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(PS - if you want to know why I'm going back to this guy when it messes with me, it's because I don't trust anyone else to fix my foot.)⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
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ID: Kate takes a selfie in a doctor's office. ⁣
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#PTSDAwareness #ChronicallyIll #TarsalCoalition #RheumatoidArthritis #Osteoporosis
Week 25 of #2026Weekly Happy to be in Maine for Week 25 of #2026Weekly 

Happy to be in Maine for a few weeks! I didn’t get up to a lot, so another week of very few pictures

1️⃣ IVIG 
2️⃣ Lots of beautiful birds have been coming to my mom’s bird feeder!

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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣⁣⁣

⬛⁣⁣⁣

IDs: 
1️⃣ Looking at Kate’s lap. Tubes are coming out from under her shirt and there’s a Kindle
2️⃣ Birds arriving at a bird feeder as seen through a window

#ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #ChronicPain #IVIG
What do you have to do every day for your chronic What do you have to do every day for your chronic illnesses? ⁣
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For context, I have rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, POTS, heart disease, osteoporosis, and more. ⁣
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⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
⁣
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ID: ⁣
Things I Do Every Day for My Chronic Illnesses⁣
Take pills at least 4 times a day⁣
Don’t eat gluten, dairy, corn, soy, or eggs⁣
Sleep 7+ hours a night⁣
Consume 80-100 grams of protein, 120 mg of calcium, 5-10 grams of sodium⁣
Wear a mask whenever I leave the house⁣
Do pilates 4+ days a week⁣
Work from home⁣
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#ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #RheumatoidArthritis #Fibromyalgia
Filmed this back in April (hence the sweater) but Filmed this back in April (hence the sweater) but it applies to whenever I have appointments! 

Video: Kate talks to the camera while holding a purse. She holds up individual items mentioned in the video before putting them in the bag. There are captions. 

#ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #Osteoporosis #ChronicPain
There are a lot of medical advancements that I'm g There are a lot of medical advancements that I'm grateful for, but one of them is the ability to do IVIG at home. ⁣
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I'm on IVIG - or, in my case, subcutaneous immunoglobulin replacement therapy - because I have to kill the better part of my immune system. There are, in fact, some parts of my immune system that don't attack me, which is why we add them back in. This helps reduce my chance of serious infection and also made my rheumatologist feel comfortable enough to increase my Rituxan dose. ⁣
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This is a weekly treatment that I do, but it's so much better that I can do it at home than going into the hospital. It takes around 2.5 hours from taking my pre-meds to tossing my needles into a Sharps container. While it's another thing that I have to do, because I do it at home, I don't have to risk exposure to infections at the hospital or deal with Boston traffic, which would add another hour to the process. ⁣
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I can finish my treatment and then go about my day, which I'm very grateful for.⁣
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⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣
⁣
⁣⁣⬛⁣⁣⁣
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ID: A Kindle on Kate's legs. There are tubes for an infusion coming out of her shirt.⁣
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#IVIG #ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease
Weeks 23 and 24 of 2026 Weekly! The last two wee Weeks 23 and 24 of 2026 Weekly! 

The last two weeks were prepping for my infusion, having/recovering from my infusion, and getting caught up after. This meant things were very busy but also I don’t have a lot to show for them. 

1️⃣ New glasses! I really like having multiple pairs so I can switch them as I want.
2️⃣ One of my current projects. I got this standing hoop for my birthday and I’m working on an alphabet (uppercase and lower, although I’m still working on the lower) with extra floss.
3️⃣ Infusion time! I got my higher dose so hopefully my symptoms improve a lot in the upcoming weeks🤞🏻

⬛⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣

I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 10+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣.⁣⁣

⬛⁣

IDs: 
1️⃣ Kate takes a selfie. Her new glasses are thin silver circles
2️⃣ An in-progress cross-stitched alphabet in a special hoop stand that Kate is sitting on.
3️⃣ Kate takes a selfie in an infusion chair.

#ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #AutoimmuneDisease #CrossStitcher
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