Comments on: Working and Rheumatoid Arthritis

By: cherish

cherish — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 04:32:37 +0000

This is an emotional one for me. Just this school year, I reduced my schedule to teaching kindergarten just half-time. RA has made me feel like I was totally inadequate. By the time my afternoon class was starting I was in so much pain I couldn’t think straight, much less TEACH 25 5 year-old-busy-children. It broke my heart. So, I went half time. My husband is furious. My children don’t get new clothes for school. It sucks. But I am much more productive and successful at school and at home. It’s worth the money-loss. But sad that it came to this.

By: laura

laura — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:29:27 +0000

I am currently 21 years old i was diagnosed a year ago…. I work at a restaurant and I know I won’t be able to do it for much longer. There are days were I leave crying because of the pain in my feet or knees or elbows and hands. Besides the side affects I get from the meds are really bad. There is nothing i love to do more than be in the kitchen…..

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 21:21:59 +0000

I can so relate to the people on the video. I am a nurse and changed jobs, and reduced my hours and am considering how much longer I can keep going. I actually just stumbled on this website yesterday when I googled Depression and RA. This is a very helpful blog and I will be following closley! Thanks for the information.

By: Susan Galyon

Susan Galyon — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:19:49 +0000

I had worked as a USDA Animal Infection Officer and then as a middle and high school math/science teacher for 18 years. In hopes of higher income, I had gone to the local vocational school and passed the tests to be come a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. I was working on my doctoral thesis in “Computer Assisted Instruction:How Can Teachers Help the Least Successful Students in School?” My husband and I lived on a 150 cow dairy farm where he/we milked and cared for about 250 cows. I was the mom that did everything from teaching the whole community to swim in our pool to being the chair of the PTA and being the liason for legislative action in our county. I had testified before Congress about the use of Roundup in food crops and 20 years later I talked to Congress about my vision for a better education for America. I’ve had lunch at the White House twice and worked with my state’s governor on educational reform.
After two years of bouts with pneumonia and weeks long hospital stays and missed days in my classroom and an especially trying trip to Epcot/Sea World with my 8th grade class, I dragged myself into my PCP’s office and said something is wrong and I don’t know what. I burst into tears and couldn’t stop crying. He looked at my sausage fingers and toes, rotating my extremity joints and took my temp. Then he said with tears in his eyes “I’m going to pull some bloodwork, get you an appointment with Dr. Brackett. Susan, you have Rheumatoid Arthritis.” I saw stars. He sent me home with a strong antibiotic, in case I had infection, b/c my temp was about 101.5, a steripred dose pack starting with 60 mg a day and a prescription for Motrin. The appointment with the RA doc was five weeks away.I slept, didn’t go to work, lost 20 pounds and finally saw the rheumy.
My rheumy is one of the better ones I have decided. He did a lot of the right things. He might have been more aggressive but the biologicals were not yet out and I would not stay on prednisone. That first major flare if awareness lasted 3 years. Two years after later, 5 yrs post dx, I had my first total joint replacement, then each year for 2 years I had another one. A hysterectomy was strongly recommended because my anemia was acute and blood loss during TJR can be a factor. I had to bank and use my own blood because of several unusual factors in my blood and a previous reaction to a blood transfusion. So…13 years into my RA dx, my lower back finally became intolerable, along with my right shoulder. A 6 hour TLIF proceducre was perfomed on my lumbar spine, fusing from L1 to S2. I have rods, screws and additional hardware to stablile my vertabrae. I had bone removed from my pelvis. The spine doctor was sitting in my room when I woke up. He gave me even odds of walking again. He told me how rough it was and how much damage there was to my spine. At the x-ray, MRI phase of the dx, he told me on a scale on 1-10, the deterioration and arthritis on the facets joints in my back was a 12. On a trip for a second opinion, a radiologist specializing in the dx of spinal issues at one of the SE’s top hospitals, said he wouldn’t know where to start on my back. He told me bluntly that he didn’t think I could expect a positive outcome from a surgery of such intensity. He said I had the most unstable lumbar spine of anyone he had ever looked at and he didn’t know how I was functioning at all, must less walking. He dx me with Cauda Equina syndrome. Yeah, more words.
After the grueling surgery, and yes, I walked the next morning, my boss, our local school superintendent, arrived to tell me she had been in contact with the school system’s insurance carrier and they just felt “I was too big of a liability to come back to work.”
My heart and my mind broke for a few days. I was only present in the physical. I went through rehab in the hospital and on the Friday I was supposed to go home, my spine doctor told me he believed I had given up and what needed to happen for me to become inspired again? I had discussed my job situation with him. I told him I wanted to go back to work and he said absolutely not.
It’s 6 years later and I am surviving. But that’s another story.
Susan

By: Kelly Young

Kelly Young — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:28:18 +0000

Good luck jen – sounds very hard.

By: jenfen

jenfen — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 05:13:13 +0000

I work full time in a physically demanding job, where the medical treatment I am on is working great and I love my work. When I got this job through friends, I told my employees of my RA, though I dont think they quite understand what it is. Now they are selling the business and I worry that I may lose my job to a younger trainee(less wages), with the new boss. I am 48 and dreading the question on employment applications”Do you have any medical conditions?”, no-one will employ me.. The reality is if I cant work full time I will have to give up the house I rent and not be able to support my daughter.A nightmare!!!

By: Kelly Young

Kelly Young — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:48:02 +0000

I don’t know how they can, Shelly. But, I know we don’t all have the same symptoms all the time. Even in one patient, the symptoms can change over time. People who can work full time are obviously not dealing with as severe disease activity as some others. It’s obviously best for us to do as much as we can each day, but we are the only ones who know where that line can be drawn for ourselves.

By: Shelly

Shelly — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:55:00 +0000

I am an LPN and work in a dermatologist office, part-time. I am on my feet nearly the entire day, sometimes we have only a 15 minute lunch, or rarely an 1 hour lunch. I am the oldest nurse at 53. I feel as if I am standing still while the “healthy” and younger ones are rushing around. One day recently, after 7 hours of running around I felt as if I was just going to get a chair and just lay my head down on a table and close my eyes. I wonder how others can do it full time?!

By: Kelly Young

Kelly Young — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:15:28 +0000

Hi June, I think I discussed that on some of the posts about the spine & RA – click here for the list. Also, you might look through the comments on those posts for old discussions on the matter. One issue is the instability of the joints – it cannot be judged precisely & it can change quickly. If the joints are unstable, which RA can cause, that creates a danger (of spinal cord compression) that even a trusted chiropractor could not overcome. I can’t give you medical advice, but I was certainly grateful that a well-respected chiropractor who I saw for massage therapy told me to not let anyone “adjust” my neck ever. Then I did more research on it and I choose to follow her warning and pass on that warning when asked since the danger is so great. If you have “damage” and a “great subluxation” already as you mention, I wonder whether you should be evaluated by a spine specialist or a neurologist. You could look through those spine posts to show you what some of the perils may be of this situation. There are excellent surgeons who can correct these problems caused by RA or who can help you watch to know when surgery is needed.
The part about your saying: “my rheumatologist doesn’t seem as concerned as me” is another issue. It bothers me to hear this, but I do. You could just get your spine issues treated by a spine specialist – which you need anyway. If there are other issues he shows less concern about, then you could eventually look for a 2nd opinion from another rheum doc. The hard thing about RA is that since it affects so many parts of us, we have to be on alert & take the initiative to see various doctors to protect our health – whether or not our GP or our rheum dr is being aggressive on our behalf. I hope this helps some.

By: June

June — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 08:14:01 +0000

Kelly,
Please explain more about the dangers of chiropractic manipulation on compressed/damaged vertebrae,including C1 and C4-5. I have just this week been evaluated by a chiropractor who insists he can help reduce pain and restore ‘full functioning of the body’ with 7.5 months of twice-weekly adjustments, at a pretty price not covered by insurance, I might add. I’m still trying to decide what to do…my rheumatologist doesn’t seem as concerned as me. Meanwhile, I’m out of my mind with constant severe neck pain and constant clicking and popping of my neck joints, and X-rays show severe subluxation, but no tingling or paralysis…yet (though I fear that could happen). The chiropractor insists he will do no harm, so your strong response against such manipulations has me wondering. Do you have any articles or studies I can read to support this view? By the way, I also was recently disgnosed with polychondritis, so i have several ‘issues’ going on in my cervical spine.Thanks!