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in Writing & Blogging · February 2, 2017

How To Get Blog Traffic: My Blogging Advice To Actually Grow Your Blog

Oh, January. Most of my pageviews, etc., decreased, but my social media followers increased. I don’t really understand why. The big difference in between January and December is that December had gift guides, so maybe those drew in more views and now that the holidays are over people aren’t looking for gift ideas. I’m not sure.

Here’s one thing I know for certain about getting more blog traffic: doing one “magic” task once won’t help in the long-run. You need to do that “magic” thing regularly. In order to put my money where my mouth is and prove this – and to be more proactive about growing my traffic than I have in a while – I decided that every month I’m going to pick a tool for getting blog traffic. Then, I’m going to really hone in on it every month. This month, I worked really hard on setting up my Pinterest images for success, which I’ll talk about down below. I’m still doing other things – which I will continue talking about every month – but each month, there will be one major tool that I’ll focus on. Then, I will (hopefully) keep doing it the next month when I add another tool.

If you’re new around here, the way I do blog traffic reports is I share the statistics from this month – pageviews, various social media followers, top posts, etc. – and then I share what I did to improve my traffic. I’ll share what worked, what didn’t, and my goals.

All Traffic Reports

After several months of traffic goes all over the place, I decided on a new strategy to grow my blog. Check out my tips for how to get blog traffic based on what I did this month, what worked, and what didn't.

Traffic Report

Current Statistics

Unique Pageviews: 7,129 (-32% from last month, +60% from last year)

Bounce Rate: 35.28% (+15% from last month, -59% from last year)

Sessions: 6,358 (+16.7% from last month, +88.3% from last year)

Users: 3,371 (-29% from last month, +13.9% from last year)

Bloglovin: 1,721 (+0.7% from last month, +9.8% from last year)

Email Subscribers: 248 (+5.5% from last month, +191.7% from last year)

Social Media

Facebook: 914 (+1.3% from last month, +18.7% from last year)

Twitter: 2,722 (+0.6% from last month, +36% from last year)

Instagram: 1,732 (+0.05% from last month, +73.2% from last year)

Google+: 203 (+2% from last month, +31.8% from last year)

Pinterest: 4,209 (+4.6% from last month, +121.4% from last year)

Tumblr: 3,679 (+0.3% from last month, +6% from last year)

Top Posts

  1. Chronic Pain and Loving Someone with It
  2. Accepting Your Body with Chronic Illness
  3. A Weekend in Boston
  4. 40 Blog Post Ideas
  5. Christmas Gift Ideas for Dad or Anyone
  6. Pain and Cold Weather: Dealing with Chronic Pain this Winter
  7. Preparing for Chronic Pain Medical Appointments + Free Printable To Help
  8. How To Succeed in College: Getting Set for a Great Semester
  9. 40 Blog Post Ideas for Lifestyle Bloggers
  10. A Note on Living with Acute Chronic Pain

Top Sources of Traffic

How To Get Blog Traffic: My Blogging Advice To Actually Grow Your Blog

  • I LOVE that the first thing on this list is direct, meaning more people came here directly than from another source. If you’ve come here directly, comment below and tell me what brought you!
  • Note that 3 of the links on this list are t.co – which means they’re Twitter links. Another 3 are Pinterest links and there’s a Facebook link, too. That means that 7 of the 10 sites that sent the most traffic are social media.
  • Another 244 are Google searches. Glad to know that my SEO work has helped!
  • I also looked at the next 10 sources of traffic, and they’re all social media. 5 are Pinterest, 3 are Facebook, 1 is Tumblr, and 1 is Bloglovin. I talked about the importance of social media for getting blog traffic earlier this month in 8 Tips To Get More Twitter Followers.

What I did in January to get blog traffic, what worked, and what didn't. PLUS, I'm sharing the new strategy I'm trying.

How To Get Blog Traffic

Traffic Analysis

What I Did:

  • How I promote all of my posts (includes social media strategy and more)
  • The big task I focused on in January was setting Pinterest images up for success. I made sure that every post had Pinterest-optimized images, which often meant creating a smaller version for the post and a larger one for Pinterest. I added it manually to Pinterest itself or scheduled it with Tailwind, and I made sure to share each image to multiple boards. They have been shared at different times, and I used Tailwind’s optimize schedule tool to share the images at times that are especially likely to get shares and clicks. I also wrote a nice description with at least one SEO phrase – since Pinterest is really a search engine – and named the images with a good SEO keyword.
  • Scheduled tweets and Facebook posts promoting other social media networks, the blog’s Bloglovin’ account, and the signup link for The Greatest People You’ll Ever Meet (email newsletter). My Bloglovin followers increased more in January that they did in many months previously, so I consider that a win!
  • Took an unexpected blog break from 1/13-1/19 due to abdominal pain episode; this included no new blog posts and scheduled shares of blog posts.
  • Some of my older posts about disability started going around and were shared more than usual (for a Friday night); probably because of the inauguration – for example, 1 post shared by 7 different Twitter accounts in 15 minutes
  • Started sharing posts on Instagram stories again; I haven’t really posted much of anything on my story in months as I focus more on Snapchat
  • I took a poll on Twitter for free download opinions so I will be creating free downloads that are more likely to get attention

I Haven’t Seen Results From:

  • I’m not 100% positive if the Pinterest focus made a difference or not. I think this is the kind of thing that will help me long-term, but it might not show up now.
  • Promoting posts on Snapchat or Instagram stories – if you have seen a post on either of them and then came to the blog to check out the post, can you please let me know? I’d love to get your feedback!
  • Free download survey – I won’t know if this helped until I start making more free downloads.

What I Can Learn from This Month:

  • Shared posts on social media really help if you end up unexpectedly offline. My blog traffic only dipped a little, but not a lot, which is probably because I have a lot of posts on Pinterest that are shared and clicked even if I don’t do anything.

Goals for January:

  • 9-12 posts – Yes! I had 11, which is pleasantly surprising considering I was unexpectedly offline and the semester started again.
  • 11,000 pageviews – Sadly, I missed this. I don’t really know why my traffic decreased, but it seems to be on its way back up.
  • Maintain 40% bounce rate – Success!

Goals for February:

  • 8,000 pageviews
  • 9-12 posts
  • Grow social media followers

What have you done in the past that really helped your blog traffic?

Kate Mitchell

Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.

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Related

Previous Post: « January Favorites
Next Post: 4 Questions To Ask Before Traveling with Chronic Health Problems »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Melissa McCarthy says

    February 2, 2017 at 9:27 am

    Great post. I need to branch out. I haven’t used Instagram or Snapchat for blog traffic. Actually, I haven’t used much of anything besides Facebook and Pinterest.

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    • Kate Mitchell says

      February 3, 2017 at 7:38 am

      I really suggest you look at other social media networks! Facebook and Pinterest are amazing, but Twitter is equally awesome for me.

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  2. Thabina says

    February 3, 2017 at 3:36 pm

    I definitely need to try some of these out since I’m kind of in a rut. Also, this is the first post of your blog I am reading, I came here from your instagram story! 😉

    http://www.elegantlychiic.com

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    • Kate Mitchell says

      February 4, 2017 at 8:48 am

      Ah! Thank you for telling me you came from Instagram! Regarding blog traffic, I strongly suggest you focus on Pinterest if you haven’t done that much. It can make a huge difference in general.

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      Reply
  3. Nicole DaRosa says

    February 3, 2017 at 4:15 pm

    Every article I read about gaining traffic raves about Pinterest so I’ve been trying to utilize it more. I definitely agree that it is something you will see long-term. It’s not an immediate game-changer but I’m still working at it! Thanks for sharing 🙂

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    • Kate Mitchell says

      February 4, 2017 at 8:51 am

      Good luck! I think Pinterest can be an amazing resource. I get traffic from posts from 2015 because of Pinterest. The work I did in January (and am continuing to do now) is a level up from what I’ve done so far, but it’s so helpful in general.

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  4. Lisa Necole says

    February 10, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    Newbie Here. Thanks for the share

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  5. Karen DeBonis says

    February 15, 2017 at 8:51 am

    I’m fairly new to blogging and very new to Pinterest, and I’m so confused! My blogs are stories from my life; I use only one image per post. So it looks like you create an image for each of your posts specifically for Pinterest? I guess I could do that, but it seems like so much work. Oh I wish I could afford to hire a social media manager!!

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Trackbacks

  1. Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog - Why I'm Focusing on One Big Blog Traffic Boosting Tool a Month - Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog says:
    March 3, 2017 at 8:01 am

    […] I said at the beginning of February, you need to keep doing the “magic” to grow your traffic. You can’t just do one […]

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  2. Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog - June Blog Traffic Report - Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog says:
    July 5, 2017 at 8:01 am

    […] – What is so great about this is that it reinforces how important it is to optimize your posts for Pinterest. This was the big thing that I focused on several months ago, and I have been impressed with the […]

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  3. Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog - October Blog Traffic Report - Kate the (Almost) Great | Boston Lifestyle Blog says:
    November 3, 2017 at 8:01 am

    […] Google because the quality of the image is just as important as the search engine terms. I started focusing on optimizing my images for Pinterest back at the beginning of the year, and I’ve continued what I learned. I […]

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Having decades-long health problems sometimes mean Having decades-long health problems sometimes means coming across something in your health history that you completely forgot about⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ID: Screenshot of a thread post written by Kate Mitchell | Kate the (Almost) Great with the username katethealmostgreat. ⁣⁣The background is dark teal. All text is what’s above the first black square.⁣⁣⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #rheumatoidarthritis #arthritis #spoonielife #healthblogger #autoimmune #autoimmunedisease #chronicallyill #healthblog #dysautonomia #fibro #fibromyalgia #endo #chronicallyill #disability #disabled #invisibleillness #spoonielife #healthblogger
Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talki Here are some ways I practice self care, aka talking care of myself AND who I am as a person separate from illness⁣
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This is my Wonderful Things jar. Every day, I write down something wonderful or good that happened that day. ⁣
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I know it looks like I'm forcing Harley to sit like this, but he was making this face before I put my arm around him. Dog snuggle time is the best!⁣
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I got a Kindle this year and it has been amazing. It's so much easier on my body than lugging around books and it makes borrowing from the library a lot easier.⁣
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Yes, I share this all the time, but filling my pill boxes every 3 weeks make it so I stick with all of my medications. But the self-care part of this is that I don't have to take the time to refill a box every single week.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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1️⃣ A glass jar on a desk with a lot of multi-color post-its inside⁣
2️⃣ Kate has her face in a golden retriever who is slumped onto her. They're in a teal room with a red rug. Kate is a brunette white woman wearing red pants and a gray sweater.⁣
3️⃣ A Kindle on dark mode in Kate's lap⁣
4️⃣ 3 open pill cases on a yellow bedspread ⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #AlmostGreatLife #SelfCare #ChronicallyIll #ChronicallyAwesome #SpoonieLife #Spoonie #ChronicLife #ButYouDontLookSick #InvisibleIllness #MentalHealthMatters #RetrieversOfInstagram #Readers #Kindle #WonderfulThings #GratitudePractice
What I Bring To the Doctor _______ Video: a pa What I Bring To the Doctor 

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Video: a pan of an exam room. White text reads “What I Bring To the Doctor ” and the “1. Planner/notebook
2. List of current medications 
3. Notes on my biggest concerns and questions 
4. My kindle for wait time” 
The intro to Maroon 5’s Priceless plays. 

#AlmostGreatHealth #ChronicIllness #ChronicPain #RheumatoidArthritis #SjogrensSyndrome #Fibromyalgia #Endometriosis
💃🏼 Week 17 of #2025Weekly 💃🏼⁣
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1️⃣ She’s married!! ⁣
2️⃣ She married the best person in the world for her!!!!!⁣
3️⃣ I got dressed up! ⁣
4️⃣ The reality of doing fun things with chronic illness and pain is that then you have to recover from the fun things. It took … a while. One million percent worth it, but this is why I don’t do big events on a regular basis. ⁣
5️⃣ And then I had to be a person again for an appointment!⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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1️⃣ Kate stands hugging Emmie. They're both white woman. Emmie is in a wedding dress and Kate is in a red dress and wearing round tortiseshell glasses.⁣
2️⃣ Kate and Emmie stand next to Matt, Emmie's husband. He is a white man.⁣
3️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. she's in the same red dress but now also wears a jean jacket and holds a cane and mask.⁣
4️⃣ Kate takes a selfie while giving a thumbs up. She looks tired. She's now wearing a pink flowery dress. ⁣
5️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's wearing black shorts, a gray shirt, a jean jacket, a blue mask, and black aviator sunglasses. She has a bag over her shoulder and holds a cane.⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #AlmostGreatLife #ChronicallyIll #InvisibleIllness #SpoonieLife #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #Autoimmune #ButYouDontLookSick #AutoimmuneDisease #SpoonieLife #InvisibleIllness #DisabledAndCute
On the one hand, you should always believe what pe On the one hand, you should always believe what people tell you about their bodies.⁣
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On the other hand, I’ve had so much ridiculous and unconnected health things happen that I do understand why people might not believe me.⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how Last week, I talked about how it surprised me how systemic autoimmune arthritis can be. But something else that surprised me was how much pain can be caused by small things.⁣
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In this picture, I was getting ready to have an MRI on my knee. It has been bothering me a fair amount the last 6+ months, so I'm trying to do something about that. ⁣
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Unsurprisingly, some of the tissue is damaged, but it's not bad. What's probably causing it to bother me so much is a teeny tiny cyst. ⁣
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Baker's cysts are a type of cyst in the knee that are generally caused by arthritis. But having a cyst in my knee means that it's causing pressure on that damaged tissue. ⁣
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The body is a weird thing, and one of these weird things is developing tiny cysts that cause a lot of pain. ⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's a brunette white woman wearing a hospital gown, scrub bottoms, black mask, round tortoiseshell glasses, and round tortoiseshell glasses. ⁣
🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣ ⁣ 1️⃣ S 🌸 Week 16 of #2025Weekly 🌸 ⁣
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1️⃣ Spring has sprung … ⁣
2️⃣ … Which means I am overheating! ⁣
3️⃣ A quick view of NYC on my travels ⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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1️⃣ A flowering tree on a street ⁣
2️⃣ Kate takes a mirror selfie. She's a brunette white woman wearing a blue t-shirt saying "The Future Is Accessible," a black mask, a green hat reading "Facilities Management), black shorts, a black knee sleeve, and a black knee brace. She holds a pink cane.⁣
3️⃣ A picture of the New York City skyline behind a bridge.⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #AlmostGreatLife #ChronicallyIll #RheumatoidArthritis #SpoonieLife #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease #ChronicPain #Arthritis #RheumatoidDisease #Dysautonomia #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #POTS #InvisibleIllness
If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ... ⁣
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I tell her how things would get worse before they got better. ⁣
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I'd tell her to stop eating gluten, dairy, corn, soy, and eggs immediately (although that would have been a lot harder in 2010, more than it even is now). ⁣
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I'd tell her that she still needs to keep advocating for herself. ⁣
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I'd tell her that having a diagnosis unfortunately doesn't mean everything automatically falls into place. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she'll develop many more illnesses but her quality of life will actually get significantly better. ⁣
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I'd tell her that she would eventually have to get her right foot fixed, although she does expect that.⁣
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I'd tell her that using a cane is not a sign of failure, but a tool to make life better.⁣
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(I did a sort of tongue-in-cheek post about this a while ago and thought I'd post a more serious one).⁣
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⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate. Follow me for more content for chronic illness patients and their loved ones!⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate poses for the camera holding a mug with the letter M on it. Kate is a brunette white woman wearing a blue sweater and round tortoiseshell glasses. A white text box reads "If I met my newly diagnosed self for coffee ...". ⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #ChronicallyIll #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease #AutoimmuneArthritis #Rheum #InvisibleIllness #Arthritis #ButYouDontLookSick #ArthritisWarrior #CureArthritis
The thing that surprised me the most about autoimm The thing that surprised me the most about autoimmune arthritis is how systemic it is. ⁣
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Like with most things, it's one thing to know the fact and it's something else to experience it. ⁣
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Yes, my joints are affected (a lot). ⁣
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But I've had enough serious infections thats I have to see an immunologist because we need to be aware of my antibodies and I sometimes need help recovering from illnesses. ⁣
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And, yes, I see pulmonology because of my asthma, but we also have to keep an eye out on developing rheumatoid nodules in my lungs. (So far so good!)⁣
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Not to mention that, when I developed POTS, the hospital admitted me to run every heart test to make sure that, at 26, I wasn't experiencing heart failure. ⁣
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Plus, when I developed endometriosis, I also went through a number of GI tests because one theory was that I had ulcerative colitis. ⁣
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Anyway, RA is so much more than "just" joints. If it wasn't, I wouldn't have to kill my immune system every 3 months like I am in this picture.⁣
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I’m Kate, a chronic illness patient and advocate sharing what my life is like with 7+ chronic illnesses. Follow me for more and check out my blog at katethealmostgreat.com⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣
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ID: Kate takes a selfie in an infusion chair. She is a brunette white woman wearing a Boston Red Sox shirt, blue mask, and round tortoiseshell glasses.⁣⁣
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#AlmostGreatHealth #RheumatoidArthritis #RheumatoidDisease #Rheum #Autoimmune #AutoimmuneDisease #InvisibleIllness #ButYouDontLookSick #Sjogrens #SjogrensSyndrome #POTS #PosturalOrthostaticTachycardiaSyndrome #Dysautonomia
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