How to Live With Rheumatoid Arthritis (Real Examples)

Two examples below

Stephanie

Stephanie is doing her bachelor’s degree online. She has a husband and children and lives in Colorado. She was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and has to bear a lot of pain as her feet and hands get swollen specially when the weather changes. Her husband, too, suffers from narcolepsy.

However, she takes pain killers, cortisone, sometimes a cocktail of drugs like Methotrexate and Plaquenil to help her cope and get moving, trying to live as normal a life as possible. She also runs a home tutoring business, while trying to get a full time job.

Kim

Kim lives in Chicago with her husband and six cats. She was misdiagnosed for a long time and after having a series of tests over two years, and going to a third rheumatoid arthritis doctor, she was finally diagnosed with arthritis. Because of her misdiagnoses, she also developed neuropathy.

‘I can no longer open jars; in the way I use my arms rather than my hands to hold doors open; in the way I can’t play 18 holes of golf any longer; in the way that I become grumpy after 4 hours of activity; in the way that I limp when I first try to walk; in the way that I ache every single day; in the way that I find myself becoming obstreperous about taking medications,’ she says on the ways the disease has affected her life.

She has taken drugs like Methotrexate, Leflunomide and Plaquenil as also other drugs for other problems.