Grateful Blog

Today I’m grateful for … A negative that ultimately turned into a positive. At the end of what had already been a very trying day yesterday, I happened to see an extremely depressing TV commercial for a Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) drug similar to the one I’m taking for my Psoriatic Arthritis (PA). The commercial showed a woman playing a piano, which suddenly starts crumbling and breaking apart. Meanwhile, the voice says: “As you know, RA means pain. But you may not know it can also mean destruction—not just of your joints, but of the things you love to do. The longer you live with the aching, stiffness, and swelling, the closer you may be to having your favorite things taken away.” The piano then pretty much comes crushing down.

Ouch. Ouch physically, and OUCH emotionally.

To add to the obviously depressing parts, the commercial then changed to happy music with the suggestion that as long as you talk to your doctor and get this medication, you’ll be fine. Anyone with RA or PA knows that that is, unfortunately, not reality. In fact, it’s almost a hallmark of the disease that treatment simply doesn’t work for many people, or that treatment that once worked wears off over time (as is the case with me). The answer is not as simple as taking a drug, and making the pain go away.

Now, for the positive…

I was so distressed by the ad, I went online searching for more information about it, and I stumbled onto RAWarrior.com. Finally! For more than two years, I’ve been looking for a way to connect with other people with PA. To say that having this disease is isolating is a major understatement. I literally don’t know anyone else with it. I can count on one finger the people in my life who had ever heard of it before I told them about it. It’s also a very misunderstood disease, so even when I do tell people (a rarity), they usually don’t grasp what I’m dealing with because they visualize the arthritis that their elderly family member talks about. It’s not that. I wish it was.

Since my diagnosis more than two years ago, I’ve tried a number of different online communities that for one reason or another haven’t clicked with me, but I immediately loved the vibe of the people supporting each other at RAWarrior.com. The look and feel of the site is old; the support and conversations are anything but. For the first time, I finally felt a glimmer of hope, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that.