2 February is Rheumatoid Awareness Day in America
elnafinn
Member Posts: 7,412
February 2 has been established as Rheumatoid Awareness Day in America. What a breakthrough. 
RA Tray via FB
My latest blog post in honor of the 1st Annual Rheumatoid Disease Awareness Day tomorrow.
For me this day is long overdue! In the 19 years I've had Rheumatoid Arthritis (aka RA OR RD) there has been little to no awareness for this disease. It is so misunderstood and underestimated. Many associate RA as an "Old Persons Disease" or " only effecting your joints" but it is so much more than that. It is a force to be reckoned with. A beast of its own. RA is an autoimmune disease. What's an autoimmune disease? An autoimmune disease is when,for unknown reasons ,something triggers your immune system to go haywire and it starts attacking otherwise healthy joints,organs,eyes and even the skin. There is no cure and the medicines to treat the disease are very harsh. Some of the same meds are used to treat Cancer patients are also used to treat RA. The pain is like no other I've ever experienced and is quite hard to explain.
Imagine the worst car wreck you can think of and how sore and beat up you would feel the next day. Like someone had beat you with a baseball bat while you were asleep and to move,walk,climb stairs or something as simple as picking up a milk jug or getting up from a chair became extremely hard or impossible to do. Every muscle,joint,tendon in your body hurt and how it would scream it pain and how much misery you would be in from such an ordeal. Now image feeling like that for the rest of your life! This is the average day in the life of a Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. Always on the search for the medicine to grant you some kind of relief...a break from the pain...even if it is short lived. Many think of it as " just arthritis" but this is not a kind of arthritis that can be treated with a couple Advil. RA is often confused with Osteo Arthritis ...but the two are not the same. I hope with the 1st Annual Rheumatoid Disease Awareness Day that RA will emerge from the shadows it has been in for all these years and bought to the light. My hope is for RA to be seen as more than" Just Arthritis" and the severity of this disease finally be taken seriously. With awareness comes more research and with more research comes a chance for one day finding...a cure!
(I hope this is not too long but I could not find a link that worked on here)
RA Tray via FB
My latest blog post in honor of the 1st Annual Rheumatoid Disease Awareness Day tomorrow.
For me this day is long overdue! In the 19 years I've had Rheumatoid Arthritis (aka RA OR RD) there has been little to no awareness for this disease. It is so misunderstood and underestimated. Many associate RA as an "Old Persons Disease" or " only effecting your joints" but it is so much more than that. It is a force to be reckoned with. A beast of its own. RA is an autoimmune disease. What's an autoimmune disease? An autoimmune disease is when,for unknown reasons ,something triggers your immune system to go haywire and it starts attacking otherwise healthy joints,organs,eyes and even the skin. There is no cure and the medicines to treat the disease are very harsh. Some of the same meds are used to treat Cancer patients are also used to treat RA. The pain is like no other I've ever experienced and is quite hard to explain.
Imagine the worst car wreck you can think of and how sore and beat up you would feel the next day. Like someone had beat you with a baseball bat while you were asleep and to move,walk,climb stairs or something as simple as picking up a milk jug or getting up from a chair became extremely hard or impossible to do. Every muscle,joint,tendon in your body hurt and how it would scream it pain and how much misery you would be in from such an ordeal. Now image feeling like that for the rest of your life! This is the average day in the life of a Rheumatoid Arthritis patients. Always on the search for the medicine to grant you some kind of relief...a break from the pain...even if it is short lived. Many think of it as " just arthritis" but this is not a kind of arthritis that can be treated with a couple Advil. RA is often confused with Osteo Arthritis ...but the two are not the same. I hope with the 1st Annual Rheumatoid Disease Awareness Day that RA will emerge from the shadows it has been in for all these years and bought to the light. My hope is for RA to be seen as more than" Just Arthritis" and the severity of this disease finally be taken seriously. With awareness comes more research and with more research comes a chance for one day finding...a cure!
(I hope this is not too long but I could not find a link that worked on here)
The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.
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Comments
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Right. I'm on my way
Passports at the ready, everyone 
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Steven Wright0 -
Hopefully it will happen here too one day.
Elna xThe happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.0 -
The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.0 -
Thanks Elna....Its about time all arthritis were taken seriously....I am so pleased they are moving on...but it seems to be far to slow.
I do hope that bringing it to the front like this will hopefully lead to drugs that are not so aggressive..Love
Barbara0 -
Thanks Elna!
We could have it here too - I follow a lot of US RA/PsA people on twitter and they have been wearing indigo and gold to promote awareness.
I've been watching on with great interest - social networking is a fantastic tool with which to educate and influence!
Once again, thanks!
Nx0 -
Thank you Elna. I posted about this on facebook to let people know. So has the name RA changed in the US to RD? I wonder if it would be better to change it in the UK too. Might let people know it is much more than your 'Granny's arthritis'.Christine0
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A pleasure, Nicchick and Applerose.
It would be great to have a Rheumatoid Awareness Day here.
Personally I would prefer it to be known as Rheumatoid Disease than Rheumatoid Arthritis. In my opinion it is a better description. People will not immediately think of it as an old persons disease, as you say, Applerose.
I suffer from OA but am interested in learning/reading about RD.
Elna xThe happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.0 -
barbara12 wrote:Thanks Elna....Its about time all arthritis were taken seriously....I am so pleased they are moving on...but it seems to be far to slow.
I do hope that bringing it to the front like this will hopefully lead to drugs that are not so aggressive..
Elna likes this. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
If you can lay down at night knowing in your heart that you made someone's day just a little bit better, you know you had a good day.0
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