My pain, It's real.

When I tell someone that I have R.A. or Rheumatoid arthritis they hear the word arthritis and that's it. I have been told that 'everyone has arthritis' now a days and that it's no big deal. I have been told, by an employer, that I was using my "so called pain" to get out of doing my job properly. She even went on to say that it's not as bad as I make it seem and that I was just lazy. When I brought her research and paperwork from my doctor she said that it was so convenient that I had all this research on hand. I suppose being informed about my health is just a convenience to get over on people... I guess I can't really blame her. It took the doctors a few years to diagnose me properly.

Not only is this condition arthritis, it's actually considered an autoimmune disease.

An autoimmune disorder is a condition that occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks and destroys healthy body tissue. There are more than 80 different types of autoimmune disorders.

It is extremely painful and affects my daily life in a big way. The pain from my disease is part of the reason I don't work. There are mornings when I literally shed tears when I step out of bed because it feels like my bones are grinding together.

Lately it's been affecting me more than usual. I have been sleeping around 15 hours a day. Extreme fatigue is one of the main symptoms/side effects. I am in nearly constant pain. There are medicines that are out there to treat this and often work well to give people normal lives but I can not afford them so I must deal with this on my own for now. There are a lot of uneducated people out there who view this as another excuse for attention or a played up version of regular arthritis. I promise you, as a victim of this disease, it's not that way at all.

Here are some additional symptoms of this condition::

Additional symptoms include:

* Anemia due to failure of the bone marrow to produce enough new red blood cells
* Eye burning, itching, and discharge
* Hand and feet deformities
* Limited range of motion
* Low-grade fever
* Lung inflammation (pleurisy)
* Nodules under the skin (usually a sign of more severe disease)
* Numbness or tingling
* Paleness
* Skin redness or inflammation
* Swollen glands

My brother has suffered this disease from a very young age. The juvenile version is worse than a later on set. I used to watch him cry out in pain as my mom helped him out of bed in the morning. I used to hear him whimper in his sleep do to the aches that ailed him. As an adult his elbows stick and his hands cramp up so bad they have to be rubbed out.

I hope that this was informative and that the next time you hear someone say they have R.A. you have a better understanding of what they are actually saying to you.

Here are some resources on Rheumatoid Arthritis.

http://health.google.com/health/ref/Rheumatoid+arthritis

http://health.google.com/health/ref/Juvenile+rheumatoid+arthritis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae4ZdRfZR3I