Today's prompt: Great Blogs I have read this week. RABlog week is, at its heart, a way for bloggers to connect. Tell others about the great blogs you have read over the week. Perhaps you have found a gem from a blogger you did not know before or maybe one of your friends shared special insight. Give the high five in print to another blogger or two who participated in 2016 RABlog week.

As much as I would have liked to, I didn't have the time to make the rounds of all who participated in #RABlogWeek. I think Rick deserves a big round of applause for not only leading the charge, but also for being diligent on his visiting rounds. Where I went, there he was - "Mr. Everywhere"! Maybe you can your own show, Rick! Bravo!

I've selected some gems of wisdom from the blogs I read this past week. The teacher in me will leave this as an open-ended post. If you wish, you can determine the link between each of these excerpts and the value inherent in these words:

Lene at The Seated View:

"Your life is your life. RA doesn’t change that. When I was a child, my parents told me I had a choice: I could laugh or I could cry. Needless to say, I chose laughing. I’m no dummy. It’s the same with your life. You can choose to focus on the legitimately awful thing that happened to you when you got RA. Or you can choose to see it as an opportunity to shed pretense, to start over. To live exuberantly and authentically, RA and all."

Annette at Here's Your Gold Watch - Rheutired:

"I loved this acronym about [sic] I found about learning. SML stands for self-managed learning - you can choose your preferred way to learn from a variety of resources like video, webinars, articles and scientific papers. We can all choose to learn at our own speed and level, and patients who learn more often do better in the long term in many ways."

Karen at The Original Dragon Mother:

"Active patients operate quite differently. Sure, the disease is a large part of their lives, but the crucial difference is that it is a part of their lives, not the sum total. Making that work involves being a lot more active in the decision making process about treatments, and acquiring more knowledge about the disease so that there can be real partnership with treating specialists, rather than an old style doctor-patient relationship where the patient is a passive receiver of treatment."

Rick at RADiabetes:

• "You can participate in your health care.
• Being proactive is [sic] than reactive.
• Doctors and patients both have roles to play in making healthcare decisions."

Cathy at The Life and Adventures of Catepoo:

"I knew something wasn't right and scheduled an appointment with my family physician. He gave me a medication and sent me on my way.  Two weeks later I was back in his office. He was confused as to why I would return so quickly. 'I know my body. Something isn't right.' Knowing my body, I knew something BIG was going on. We needed to do something different. I will always love myself for knowing my body and for demanding my physician look deeper into my symptoms."

Kristin at Gal with Gloves:

"It became necessary to always look into what options can help me be better, which specialists are available to help me improve my condition, what therapies and medications are helpful, and what might I do on my own effort to bridge the gap. Doctors can only do so much, especially when they’re looking from outside your experience. But we’re the ones sitting in their office, stuck in our fear and frozen by our disease. It all comes down to us as patients to speak up and ask “what if?” and “why not?”. We deserve to empower ourselves as patients, so that we can live despite our lingering disease."

J.G. Chayko at The Old Lady in My Bones:

"There are things I may not be able to do well or ever do again, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing I can do. There are always new goals that replace the old ones. And even when I try and fail, I can still find some small consolation in the effort. The world is full of possibilities and I won’t let chronic disease stop me from exploring - because I know I can. (I Think I Can, I Know I Can)."

Kelly at As My Joints Turn:

"My rheumatologist and all of my doctors are my partners now. It’s a mutual respect for ideas and concerns regarding my treatments. I will never walk out of a doctor’s office feeling dejected or like a hypochondriac again. There may be times I am wrong, but I will always follow my gut instincts. They haven’t failed me yet."