Everyone

[Guest guest]

To anyone who sent me birthday wishes and I forgot to reply to, I'm sorry.

Some emails were downloaded to my laptop, and I've yet to get them on my

desktop computer so I can reply. Kathy in IL and Kathi in OK, I know you

both did. Thanks so much. It really means the world to me to have so many

wonderful friends.

I'm having such a nice time today, just puttering around the house. I'm

slowly but surely restoring order to our home. I got my speech on

Investment Analysis done last night for my speech class. It was a challenge

because I only had 1 hrs sleep the night before. Nonetheless, I did it with

a nice Power Point presentation and charts, and I think it went fine.

Although I didn't take my target audience's wishes into account enough. I

could see some glazed looks by minute 8. Oh well. My instructor said I did

a good job of explaining all the terminology so anyone could understand it.

My other two speeches are going to be persuasive. The first will be on

invisible disabilities, and the second on homelessness. If anyone has a

story they wouldn't mind my using about discrimination because your RA isn't

obvious (such as using a handicapped placard or a scooter in a store and

people giving you glances or saying something), or has some comments that

have been made about " You don't look sick " etc, I'd appreciate your sharing

them with me. Heaven knows we've all gone through it. or a, what

other diseases are there where people have invisible handicaps? I'm

thinking MS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia... I'm certain there

are other neuromuscular disorders, but maybe their handicaps would be more

obvious. Thanks in advance, everyone! I'm trying to build awareness, one

person at a time.

I feel kind of lost in the group right now. There are some new names that I

missed while I was out of town. For the newbies, my name is Carol, but I'm

also known as Ethel of Lucy and Ethel fame, one of the " gruesome twosome " .

There's great RA info here, courtesy of and a. But, we also have

a great group of friends. We get silly sometimes, hence the nickname (by

the way, Debs in FL is Lucy) I'm 37 (as of last Sunday) and I was diagnosed

with RA last Feb, but I've had symptoms for years. I just waited a long

time before seeing a doctor. I've been having a hard summer, but hopefully

I've got the right med combo now. I'm on Plaquenil, Methotrexate and

Remicade for DMARDS. I also take Mobic and folic acid daily. I use

Ultracet (Ultram), Skelaxin or Lortab if I have to for pain.

Sending love to all,

Carol