: in search of a friend or two

December 16, 2004

Ken, I am a little late, but no less sincere, when I say that by joining our

family, you will never be lonely again. We are all good .listeners and speaking

for myself, any time and I do mean anytime, I am more than happy to hear your

thoughts whenever you wish to share them. RA can be isolating in the beginning

because those closest to us usually just do not understand the pain and loss of

ourselves, as the disease rapidly changes us in so many ways. It takes time,

but when you get your pain under control, life will get better, I promise. You

are very talented in so many ways and you must try to look forward to using your

talents to help others with your wonderful poetry and other gifts you have been

blessed with. I have to give up a career that I had worked very hard for and

there were times I just wanted to crawl into bed and stay there, never having to

be told again, how I couldn't possibly be in so much pain and look so good.

Fortunately I was able to make a new career for myself by joining Patient

Partners in Arthritis. We go into the hospitals and teach med students how to

examine a patient to detect arthritis and best of all, we use our own bodies as

teaching tools Most med students in their 4th year have never seen a patient

with all the different findings we as a group, present. We also tell them what

it is like to cope with our disease on a daily basis by taking them through a

typical day in our lives. The reward is seeing them actually understanding how

important it is to do an MSK screening on every patient that is suspected of

having arthritic problems. We also allow them to palpate our joints while

explaining our limitations and how it has affected our lives. This programme has

become so successful, we have a hard time finding enough people with arthritis

to take the training. We do a lot of laughing and joking as well.

Sorry, didn't mean to get carried away and write a novel LOL

Hugs

June (The oldest member here)

----------

No virus found in this outgoing message.

Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.

Version: 7.0.296 / Virus Database: 265.5.4 - Release Date: 12/15/2004

Recommended Posts