Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

I'll start,

"But you don't look sick".

"is your arthritis all better?" Frustrating...........

Interesting topic. I just read an article about Farah Fawcett and her battle with cancer.
She said that people mean well, but every call she gets is "how are you doing?" "have you lost all your hair?" "are you feeling better today than yesterday?" etc. etc. She said she would love to get a call to just talk about a movie or about anything but her illness.

And although I appreciate people's concern, it's blatantly obvious that I'm a)hurting
b)struggling to move c)trying to change the subject to something positive.

So I guess I would just like for people to treat me like any other friend and talk about the same "stuff" they talk to them about. We all know I'm dealing with a chronic illness, but I don't want to talk about it all the time.
(except here with my friends who understand!)

Did any of you see the Michael J Fox special on Thursday? One thing he said stuck with me.
It was about how he had no control over being stricken with Parkinson Disease, but he has control over everything else, including his response to the disease....truly and optimist.

"I think you take too much medicine."
"Have you tried (fill in the blank)?"
"Just keep moving."

I think the thing that irritates me the most is that some folks say if I would just change my diet to "xyz" or whatever, that it would fix my inflammation and "poof!" no more RA.

I also just hate the fact that regular arthritis is nothing like RA and people just don't "get it".

My mom has been complaining about her pains lately and she keeps saying, "I'm changing my diet and exercising more and I'm hoping that will do the trick!"

In a terrible way, I sometimes wish she was actually getting RA so she'd be in the same boat as me. Her aches and pains may be made up to a certain extent......a person who won't take medication to ease pain in my opinion must not be in all that much pain.

I know that when RA first hit and I didn't know what was going on, I was downing Ibuprofen pills to get through my work day even though I normally never took pain killers for anything, and I knew I was going to need to quit my job because I was becoming incapable of doing the tasks....and yet I've always been one of those people that would "tough" my way through things.

RA is truly horrifically painful!!

Hi there - I'm pretty new at all of this (only diagnosed about 6 weeks ago) but I already have a list.... :)

"but isn't it better yet?"

"aren't you taking medication?"

"have you looked into (insert whatever remedy they have heard about)?"

"I think maybe you are so focused on what is hurting right now, you are just feeling it so much more"

"sometimes when I use it too much, my finger hurts, I understand" (honestly, this was said to me)

"I know exactly how you feel.. (insert a story here)"

And, the thing is, I know that they all mean well - it just gets under my skin.

There is a comic over at myracentral.com that addresses the things people say to us...

http://www.healthcentral.com/rheum...

have a great day everyone!

"I have that too"

"Well doesn't your anti-inflammatory work"

"Everybody has a little bit of arthritis"

THREE different doctors tole me (prior to diagnosis), "Well, you just have a little tendinitis. Just take some ibuforphen and you'll be fine in a couple of days." When I protested, and explained how much it hurt, I was told, "you know ... you ARE almost 50 now ..." AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"told me", sorry ...