Everything is NOT possible - even in the Big Apple.

I'm headed up to NYC this week to speak about life, Despite Lupus, at the Hospital for Special Surgery on Thursday the 29th - it should be a great session! I'm working with a great group of people at HSS, and their annual series of SLE Workshops always seems to draw a crowd. We have a good number of people registered, and I'm really looking forward to the open forum after the formal part of my presentation.

I'll head up Wednesday, the day before the event, just to get settled in and give myself plenty of time to rest up for my talk. My original plan was to pull a SuperMom move - getting up at the crack of dawn on Thursday to catch an early train to New York. I could have arrived around 11am, shot over to the hospital in a quick cab, regrouped and refreshed for my talk from 12-2pm, shot back to the train station for an afternoon train and arrived home in time for dinner to see my girls. But as most of us know, pulling a SuperMom maneuver never really works the way you want it to. I would have risked my health - foolishly overbooking myself just to prove I could do it. I would have arrived home in a pretty sorry state - and what good would that have done? Would Deirdre and Bernadette have been oh-so-proud of me for pulling such a stunt? I don't think so!

No, it was only a matter of pride that I considered a same-day trip. (My brother-in-law lives in the city and is putting me up for the night - so I can't even claim that it was a financial decision!) Just a few weeks ago, a girlfriend of mine recounted her recent whirlwind business trip to New Jersey - up at 5:45pm, back in time for a parent-teacher conference that evening at 7pm - and I remember thinking "I wish I could do that." But then I realized, you know, I really don't wish I could do that. She was tired, and I was tired just thinking about what she had done that day.

With a chronic illness - you just have to be smart, and sometimes that means playing it safe. Even if all of the other moms on the block are doing it, I just can't feel bad about doing it my own way. Lupus is not a disease to be toyed with - and I don't plan on starting anytime soon!

So if you'll be in NYC on Thursday, come by and say hi. Just make sure you give Roberta at HSS (212.606.1033) a call first!

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