Attended the 3rd Annual Day-Long Conference on Arthritis Today

[Guest guest]

Well, friends, I attended the 3rd Annual Greater Chicago Chapter

Day-Long Conference on Arthritis hosted by the Arthritis Foundation at

the Hilton Lisle Hotel in Lisle, IL today. I'm very tired! The event was

scheduled to be from 8:30 AM - 3:15 PM, but my last session lasted past

3:30.

For $10, breakfast and lunch were served, and, as a would have

wished, there were glass goblets and stainless steel pitchers of ice

water in each conference room and at every table for meals. When I got

my hand stamped as proof of registration (guess they don't want just

anyone crashing the lectures) and they handed me my styrofoam box

breakfast and I peeked inside, I thought I was going to have to write

Suzanne about Kool-Aid and orange drink again, but, no, it was 100%

juice. There was also a nice banana, muffin, and croissant. Unlimited

tea and coffee, too. Lunch was fancier and served at the table, but I

missed it due to the fact that I couldn't stop blabbing with several

representatives of sponsors of the event.

The keynote address was given by Dr. Calvin R. Brown from

Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke's Medical Center in Chicago. His speech was

entitled, " Arthritis Treatment 2002: From Cause to Cure. " When he

mentioned early in his talk that his sister was diagnosed with JRA at

sixteen, I knew I could trust him.

In addition to Dr. Brown's speech, which, to tell you the truth,

although hope-filled, positive, and good, didn't reveal much more than

we've already discussed here, I was able to choose three other lecture

sessions out of many others offered concurrently.

I attended " Are There Any Tests that are Characteristic of Lupus? " by

Zuzga, DO, FACOI, FACR, " Treating Arthritis in 2K2 " by Pat

Mac, RN, NP, and " Surgical Options for Hip and Knee Replacements "

by Senall, MD.

This was a lot of fun and very well-organized. I learned a few things

and talked to several interesting people.

At the end of his lupus presentation, Dr. Zuzga mentioned that he does

not recommend Enbrel (etanercept), Remicade (infliximab), or Kineret

(anakinra) for any lupus patient. In the next session, I asked Pat

Mac what her opinion on the use of anti-TNF therapies in lupus

was, and she also gave the idea a thumbs down (I didn't ask about

Kineret). She does arthritis research at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's

and has written articles and abstracts on results from clinical trials,

among other things. I asked her about Remicade and Enbrel in

scleroderma, too. She was involved in two small studies - one of lupus

patients and another of scleroderma patients who were treated with an

anti-TNF therapy. Not one patient in the lupus study improved. The

scleroderma patients did very, very well. I'm not sure where that leaves

you, Kathi, but I had you in mind when I asked.

In the talk about hip and knee replacements, an artificial knee was

passed around. Very cool. Of course, I was thinking of Debs when I was

tinkering with it hoping that she and her knee were doing much better.

The orthopedic physician speaking reminded me so much of Ari Fleischer

that I was distracted. He really even sounded like him. I think I watch

too much CNN. Now I'm going to be thinking of knees and hips when I see

future White House press briefings.

It was a good day. I left feeling as though there really are smart,

dedicated people out there desperately trying to find better answers and

more effective treatment for the nearly 1 in 6 people in the United

States who are suffering from arthritis or an allied condition, for all

of us here.