I LIVE WITH RA known as THE INVISABLE ILLNESS! (2 ORIGINAL PHOTOS)

Hi Steemit! I wanted to talk today about my Rheumatoid Arthritis which is also known as "The Invisable illness". I was diagnosed on June 25,1991. At the age of 26 and this if past January I turned the big 50. The day I was diagnosed my life changed forever.

Prior to then I had lost 105 pounds and started jogging 15km's a day before work in the morning and went to the gym at night and participated in 2- 1 hour sessions of high impact aerobics, needless to say hiking, biking and loved feeling so physical active and felt healthy. My RA just popped out of no where. I woke up one morning for my morning jog and I couldn't I had so much pain in my hips and knees. I went back home and it all began.

As the days went on the illness worsened. I went to my Doctor and she sent me to see a Rheumatologist. With a simple blood test she had diagnosed me with this Invisable illness. Suddenly I felt my live taking a downward spiral out of control. I lost all my ability to do any physical activity. It took it's tole on my then marriage and personal life. My now ex-husband couldn't understand that my life has been changed forever, nor could he understand my pain. I lost my job because my joints as the years went by I had deformaties in my hands, elbows, shoulder's, knees etc. As you can see from my photos I have had both of my elbows replaced about 15 years and in December of 2015 I had to have my right hip replaced and now I'm booked for this October to have my left hip replaced.

For those of you who don't know about Rheumatoid Arthrtis is called the invisable illness. Meaning you can't see it but it is very painful disforming type of illness. It is similar to other chronic illness such as fibromyalgia, lupus, Crohn's, diabetes is a some other's as well. RA is a painful, chronic inflammatory disease that can damage joints throughout body but often has little impact outer appearance, it leaves you looking healthy but feeling sick. It was one of the major causes of my divorce because he couldn't handle of deal with the fact of my diagnoses.

It's hard to know from day to day where and how much pain I will have. I have good days and bad bad days. I have been going for councilling for years and still go today. RA is an auto-immune disease which lower's your immune system so your more prone to the common cold and other immune sickness.

THE 10 CHALLENGES OF LIVING WITH RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS ARE:

-Only old people have Arthrtis
-It's all in your head
-Education is exhausting
-Fatigue is not just being tired
-I feel like I've been hit by a truck
-Pain is real but might not be constant
-Handicapped parking
-Disability
-You're so fat
-To disclose or not to disclose

I hope this will give people a new look at what this Invisable Illness does to a person life. Thanks for letting me tell you about challenges in my life. Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

SOURCES AND LINKS:

http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/patient-support-12/video-ra-sara-nash
http://rawarrior.com/tag/invisible-illness/
https://rheumatoidarthritis.net/infographic/living-with-an-invisible-illness/
https://www.facebook.com/Rheumatoid-Arthritis-The-Invisible-illness-108461392607737/
https://rheumatoidarthritis.net/living/invisible-illness-invisible-friends/
http://awomanshealth.com/rheumatoid-arthritis-finding-words-to-describe-an-invisible-illness/
http://www.healthcentral.com/slideshow/top-10-challenges-living-rheumatoid-arthritis-invisible-illness
http://www.everydayhealth.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/symptoms/rheumatoid-arthritis-invisible-illness/

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