Archive for the ‘If you don’t have RA, please read’ Category
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We Refuse to Be Mislabeled: Updating Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) to Rheumatoid Autoimmune Disease (RAD)
Three years ago, I saw Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients insisting that the name of the disease needed to be changed. They argued that until the “a” word is removed from the name, confusion about the disease will continue. When asked, I said that we could not wait around for that to happen; let’s work for [...]
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Pass the Pickles – and the Croutons
Did 2011 seem about four months long? If it were an all-you-can-eat salad bar, I’d want a refund. It went by so fast I think I only got to the pickles. This month I’ve been more sleepy and fatigued than usual. It might be recovery from traveling the last few months. Or it could be [...]
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4 Funny Things about Pain Scale Charts
Pain is one of the most important symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis and many other conditions. Pain is the most obviously significant signal that something is wrong. However, pain is also the most difficult symptom to measure. Need for a pain scale Since pain is such an important indicator that something is “wrong,” we ought to [...]
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Mayo Clinic Video Interview: Patients at ACR Scientific Meeting
Some of you may be puzzled about what I’m doing in Chicago. So here’s a brief summary and a video interview with Mayo Clinic News Blog telling why patients are interested in a scientific meeting like the ACR Scientific Meeting. What happens at the American College of Rheumatology Scientific Meeting? “The ACR/ARHP Annual Scientific Meeting [...]
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By the Way, I Have RA
I have written about the difficulty of disclosing about RA, especially at events like a Mayo Clinic Center Social Media conference. But we haven’t talked much about the other side: When we explain about RA, do people understand? Not so much. In a recent example, I went through three rounds of explanations about why I [...]
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Can We Find Similarities with Rheumatoid Arthritis?
Very often with Rheumatoid Arthritis, we emphasize our differences. It helps the newly diagnosed to get over the shock of living with a new symptom every day. It helps explain a fickle disease that is quite unreasonable and undemocratic in its attacks. But what about our similarities? Common threads and similarities in Rheumatoid Arthritis As [...]
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Will Venus Williams’ Sjögren’s Syndrome Help RA?
We had an interesting conversation on Facebook yesterday about the Venus Williams’ Sjögren’s syndrome diagnosis (actually 5 of them by day’s end). Some were wondering whether the diagnosis of another famous person with an autoimmune (AI) disease will help bring awareness for RA. Probably not. Why not? Celebrities have been diagnosed with RA (and PsA) [...]
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Response to An Identity Crisis for RA by Dr. R. Franklin Adams
Recently, I read an article in The Rheumatologist (preceding a new PR campaign by the American College of Rheumatology), “An Identity Crisis for RA: A few suggestions to bring rheumatic disease the recognition and respect it deserves.” I strongly recommend that you read the article since I cannot quote it entirely here. It was written [...]
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