I want to share some facts about Arthritis with you from a recent assignment I completed...
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which
your body’s immune system mistakenly attacks your joints; this chronic
condition causes pain, stiffness, swelling and loss of function in the joints.
About 1.5 million people in the United States have RA. Three times as many women are diagnosed with RA then men.
RA most commonly begins between the ages of 30 and 60, the
prime working ages for the average American.
Arthritis and other rheumatic conditions have been the most
common causes of disability among U.S. adults for the past 15 years.
Arthritis affects everyone differently; each person will
have different experiences and levels of pain.
Disease activity can vary, from active disease, which is
called a flair, to no disease activity, which is called remission. It is hard
to predict when these will happen.
Earnings losses
(indirect costs) for arthritis and other rheumatic conditions in 2003 were 47
billion dollars, up from 35.1 billion in 1997.
8.2 million
working-age (18-64 years) U.S. adults (about 1 in 20) report work limitations
due to arthritis or joint symptoms.
These are all mostly work related due to the focus of the assignment but I think it's good for people to see the reality of what folks face who are living with this disease. So these are your fun facts for the day!
I know some of you appreciate updates on how I'm doing with my day to day reality of living with this disease. I wish I could paint a super pretty picture for you all as I know that's the picture I would like to see when I think of myself, sadly it has gotten pretty ugly these past few months.
The great news is that I was doing fairly well this past summer, so well in fact that I got pregnant! I know, SURPRISE right?!?! You can imagine how surprised we were, being this was not a planned pregnancy at all. Unfortunately that pregnancy ended at 9 weeks, the pretty picture of this, if you want to call it that, is that the loss was not related to my disease activity, it was due to a chromosome disorder, Turners Syndrome. So I'm blaming my ugly disease activity on the crazy hormone change my body has been through since June. I have to say that this miscarriage had horrible timing as trying to do a full time masters program and 16 hours of an internship every week is not so lovely. Thankfully I feel confident in my doctors to help me through this period of time, I recently started another new biologic that has had good results with others that have failed biologics in the past. So fingers crossed this will work, for over $10,000 a shot I would like to think it would work!
In regards to my vision, it is stable and that makes me very happy! However my eye that I have had disease activity in since I was young is now actively shriveling and causing me pain, where it has not done this before. So the next step is an injection of alcohol behind my eye, it makes me want to vomit too, trust me! I will be asking for enough ativan for all us of to get through this procedure! The next step is to remove the eye, once I get to this step a pirate party will be happening and we will bedazzle the hell out of eye patches! If i'm going to be eyeless for a period of time you better believe I will be stylin! You all will be invited. Eyyyye mattey:)
I want to end this post by saying how much I love the support of my friends and family while I face this disease on an everyday basis. It's the little things that matter in life and you all do little things to make this disease not suck as much as it could! You have all brought tears to my eyes today by showing me support on Facebook and it takes A LOT for me to get emotional. THANK YOU!!
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