Rheumatoid patient: am I going to be in all that pain forever?

A rheumatoid patient is asking: am I going to be in all that pain forever?

The answer is: you are not supposed to be in all that pain forever. It was not written in the manual of rheumatoid arthritis that you should be in all that pain forever.

If you did your homework right, the pains you are suffering now are only a phase. Even if that phase has been for weeks or maybe delayed to months, it is still supposedly meant to be a phase, not a destiny. It should be temporary.

So, what is your homework?

You need to make sure you are doing the following 4 things:

• ONE: you started drinking your medications that have been prescribed to you by your rheumatologist.
• TWO: you are taking those medications on a regular and punctual basis.
• THREE: you understand that adjustments in the treatment plan might be needed in some patients and you understand that this might delay improvement for more weeks in some patients than in others.
• FOUR: you do not overuse your joints and you give them the care and rest they need when they are inflamed to give the best chance for your medications to work on those joints.

If you did your homework, if you did all those 4 things, then you are on the track to have your disease under control and you are ensuring that this nightmare will only be a phase not a destiny.

It’s very important that you know all this very well especially if you are younger in age and you are the kind of person who never really go sick and now you have those frustrating pains and swellings in your joints.. not for days or 2 weeks but for many weeks or even months now. Yah it’s taking such a long time. But remember to make sure it turns out to be only a phase and not a destiny. Just do your homework.

One last thing... remember that improvement is a gradual and slow process. You can feel better today and even more better tomorrow and then a nasty after tomorrow comes out of nowhere to break the rule. Improvement is a bit gradual and is not a straight line. It’s actually a zigzag; so, don’t compare how feel today with how you felt only yesterday; compare how you feel today with how you felt 2 or 3 weeks ago and you will find that things are probably going in a very positive direction.

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#rheumatoid

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This post was prepared and published by  Dr. Hatem Eleishi. Dr. Hatem Eleishi is a professor of rheumatology at Cairo university (Egypt) and is especially dedicated to supporting arthritis patients with online educational videos and articles about arthritis causes and treatment. He also runs a rheumatology clinic in Cairo and a center for online medical consultations that, in addition to providing online rheumatology consultations, also provides online medical consultations in several different medical specialties by expert consultants from Egypt, Canada and the United States.

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