Kelly O'Neill, Author at Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior | Page 51 of 118

Do Doctors Need to Love Patients?

August 29, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 20 Comments America, Inspiration for living with RA, Talking to doctors

The most admired leaders of our country have been the ones who trusted us, valued us, and actually loved us. President Reagan called America a “shining city upon a hill,” a biblical reference to the country’s position of service to the world; and in his final goodbye letter he reminded us that it is still...Continue reading 20 Comments » Read more

Life of a Professional Patient, Blog#7: Radiofrequency Ablation with RA?

August 26, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 6 Comments Professional patient, Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials, Rheumatoid Arthritis spine

Radiofrequency ablation has nothing to do with RA. Unless RA pain from the spine is real. Warning: This is one of those personal posts. It was an unusual week. Monday: We drove to Orlando for Roo’s hernia post-op appointment. It’s all good. I wish every doc were so skilled. Tiger saw his Fairy Godmother (hearing aid specialist). I wish...Continue reading 6 Comments » Read more

New Way to Report Response in RA Clinical Trials?

August 23, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 15 Comments American College of Rheumatology, Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials, Unrelenting RA - Persistent disease, XELJANZ-tofacitinib-JAK

Untangling a possible replacement for the “familiar” ACR 20 describing treatment response in clinical trials for Rheumatoid Arthritis Special thanks to Jay Sprinkel for assistance with this post. Although he may be more known for the humor he provides to our Facebook group, Jay is a retired marine biologist who specializes in statistics. He is also...Continue reading 15 Comments » Read more

Predicting Response to Rheumatoid Arthritis Therapy

August 22, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 12 Comments Biologics for RA, Genetics and RA, Research on Rheumatoid Arthritis, Talking to doctors

The problem of varying responses to RA therapy If you’re following comments on the blog, Twitter, or Facebook, you might have noticed some patients recently have been told by their doctors that that likely don’t have RA because they have not responded well to TNF-a therapies. Sometimes, this comes after a few years of RA treatment. “My...Continue reading 12 Comments » Read more

Rheum Blog Carnival: Pain Relief in Rheumatology

August 19, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 16 Comments Blog carnival, Professional patient, Rheumatoid arthritis pain

Hey all! I’m truly amazed and humbled by the blogs about pain relief that I’ve read over the last few days. I hope you’ll read them all. Here’s the original post with describing today’s topic about how to treat pain relief in Rheumatology. We asked about who should treat the pain and when, whether patients...Continue reading 16 Comments » Read more

“Fine Thanks, and You?” and 5 More Stupid Things I Say

August 17, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 68 Comments Communicating about RA, Humor with RA, Pain Tolerance / RA Stoicism

1) “Do you want your rubber duck?” The favorite rubber duck has a squeaker which lets water in. Squeezing the water out of that duck brings severe hand pain. Not quite as much as the softer Thomas squeaker toys. (And water also hides in the duck so it has to be squeezed for two days.) 2) “I...Continue reading 68 Comments » Read more

My Dear Friend Renoir: a Poem on Life with RA

August 16, 2011May 15, 2018 Kelly O'Neill 7 Comments Guest post on RA Warrior, Inspiration for living with RA

This poem is one reader’s sentiment about fighting Rheumatoid Arthritis after the model of Renoir. by Eveira Prados What a shame I felt and I still feel, When the contemplation of quitting invaded my mind. Thoughts that keep telling me, “What a mess!” “Is this real?” “How am I going to survive?” I took the liberty to write to you this humble letter, My...Continue reading 7 Comments » Read more