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Pain, Fatigue and Confusion, That Is The Meaning

Having Rheumatoid Arthritis is one of the most difficult things that a sufferer has to deal with.  Dealing with this disease can’t be fully be understood by others no matter how often we tell them and how much detail we go into about it.  The understanding unfortunately just isn’t there and our thought is, It Will Never Be!!  Others will never understand what it means to have Rheumatoid Arthritis, a disease we are forced to live with, deal with and suffer through along the way.

The question I ask, What Does Having Rheumatoid Arthritis Mean To You?  Most of us will probably say we have some of the same answers to that question.  For me it means my life has changed so much and in so many ways.  We can all say that but for each of us the change is different but again it’s the same.  Only a person with Rheumatoid Arthritis can understand that statement.  You see, we all are affected the same in someways but to different degrees.  This disease has worn us down so much but in spite of that we continue to fight the fight even though sometimes there’s hardly anything left in us.  We are not allowed the luxury of giving up even when we feel there is nothing left to give up.  We are in a constant fight to be strong when we have no strength and struggling against struggles.

I know it means we can never do all of the things we once did.  It means we slip into ourselves at times when we should be reaching out to those who should understand what we’re going through to hold us up but they fall short because they don’t or won’t understand.  It also means that we dance this harsh dance each and every day with this disease and it won’t let us just sit down for a moment’s rest leaving us exhausted, pained, confused and isolated.  Plus it means we face criticism for being in the clutches of something that we have no control over and will never be able to break away from.  Our fault! No it isn’t but believe it when I say, there are many times we’re made to feel that it is and made to feel we are selfish and needed people.  So does any of this sound like what it means to have Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I bet it does but I won’t take your words and make them my words.  You see we are all connected by this disease, we have a spoken and an unspoken connection.  We know what each of us have the possibility of going through so this puts us in a group that has a bond that only we can truly understand.

What it means is to never be branded as something that we’re not while suffering with something people just cannot seem to make themselves understand.  Feeling the need to always have to defend ourselves for Having this disease is truly ironic when the fight should be about having RA but the real fight it seems is us defending ourselves Against this disease.  So as it goes, I know having this disease has many uncertainties and none at this point has a positive outlook.  As our struggles with this disease continue so does our battle against pain, isolation, depression and uncertainty continues.  We will forever be dealing with these things others refuse to acknowledge that is now a part of our lives.

In the end, I will say, the struggles are hard, the truth is dimmed, the pain is never-ending, our minds are filled in a medical fog, isolation takes up our time and this is all from a disease that we’re always going to have and will always trying to define.  This is what I can say it means to me.  Having Rheumatoid Arthritis, what about you!

Be Blessed

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