LOL I love it!

This so ironic. Yesterday at the supermarket I was talking to the cashier who was clearly older than me. I complimented her on her christmas green nails. She said thank you. I think dark colors look better on short nails. I said I like mine light that way it doesn't accentuate my RA in my hands. She then showed me her hands and said "I have arthritis in my knuckles" pointing to the buldge in her knuckle. Here I'm showing her my hands that are more than just a "buldge" they are turning inwards and all crooked. LOL

I really like this! I feel like making copies and handing it out to everyone I know! lol

I, too, loved it. My only complaint is that I had to click on each one to read it. Just a pet peeve of mine. But it did list most of the well intentioned but annoying comments that I get.
I have to try to decide who to say it to (that I have RA) and who I don't.
(to avoid such comments and also, judgment)
Do any of you find that some of these typical comments make you feel like the person saying it is being cynical or doubtful of your Dx?
I come across that alot.
or they assume that if only i would change my diet or lose weight or whatever.. I think the article mentions most of those.

Thank you, trinaunz, for posting this. I agree with most of it. It did bring a question for me, though. I read: "The only dietary concerns are foods, such as grapefruit, that can interact with RA drugs." I'm sure we all have dietary concerns, but I had not heard that grapefruit can interact with our meds. Does anybody know about that?

Check out some of the other related slideshows as well. They have some fairly accurate information there. I'm pleasantly impressed, since so many of the other media articles have misrepresented the disease so much.

As a very positive note, my department head came to me today and compassionately asked me how I was really handling my workload with the disease. Her care almost made me cry because I do have an aspect of my workload that is getting to be too hard to handle. I teach college and have been teaching up to 8 lectures a day for 5 years. With the RA, the final lecture (from 8-10 p.m., 2 nights a week) is extremely difficult. I get tired, lose focus, etc. She offered to have me assigned to an easier, non-lecture class at 8 p.m. to accommodate my needs. what an unexpected gift this morning!

Best information I have seen as a hand out to help others understand. I have posted it on my FB.

Thank you for sharing:))

i'm glad so many of you enjoyed this slideshow and that it was useful to you!

@LoisR - i was also surprised by the reference to grapefruit interfering w RA meds. i take warfarin for another medical issue (pulmonary embolism) and i know that grapefruit can interact w that med by thinning your blood down some more, thus amplifying the med's effect. so, i thought i'd check it out and i'm pasting a link below from wikipedia. i see a general reference to immunosuppressants in the chart. it will take me several reads before i understand what they're saying here, but there's just something about grapefruits that causes them to make other chemicals/drugs go wacky:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_drugs_affected_by_grapefruit

That was a good list with for the grapefruit, but I don't really see any RA meds. Just the pain ones, which are not specific to RA. I eat grapefruit every day, and I would like to know if it really does affect the RA meds. I cannot get enough vitamin C from other sources.

I wish that list was also on one page. Then I would pass it around.

@angela53510 - i did a bit more looking online and found a searchable google book that's specific about interactions w medicines and foods. FWIW, i didn't find a grapefruit interaction w a TNF blocker or mtx, though i did see an interaction w a related drug for gout. but this link should be helpful to look up specific drugs and their interactions (it's a looooog address)

http://books.google.com/books?id=5f5_6aTUph8C&pg=PA116&lpg=PA116&dq=why+does+grapefruit+interact+with+biologic+drugs&source=bl&ots=Xt-n9CtWIc&sig=SV-o8Nrnh9yQBAMqIzdtqgoUhKE&hl=en&ei=AVdsTdaSHIT6sAOpyuXAAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=snippet

This is AWESOME, trinaunz. I am sure we've all heard most of these before. I love how the article turns things around and says the RIGHT thing to say. I want to forward this to all my family members :)

Lora

I have severe RA and also HepC. I have been on lots of grapefruit juice for the HepC along with enbrel for 6 years. I go to the University of Pittsburgh for treatment. I'm sure I would not have been told to drink the juice if it was not good for the enbrel.

I haven't read the list but after dealing with RA for 8 years, I just came across a new insult last week in Wal Mart. I went to pick up my new very expensive eye glasses. After the woman put them on my face, they slid right off because they were to wide for my face. She said, "If you don't put your head up straight, nothing will stay on". I told her I had RA of the spine. She replied, "What does that have to do with anything!"

Like my son says, if you don't have it or live with someone who does, you just don't know how bad it is or how many parts of the body it can effect.

I can't see the 15 things not to say. Can you please send again. Thanks

@mendie - for some reason, links posted to this forum get partially hidden. try positioning your mouse over the portion of the hyperlink you can see and try left-clicking on it.

if that doesn't work, feel free to message me and i'll send you the link directly. you could also go to health.com and search for "15 things not to say to someone w RA."

Thank you - I copied the address and sent it to some friends and family.
As for grapefruit, I have taken something before that grapefruit interacted with but there was a warning with my prescription.