Read Online The Autoimmune Connection: Essential Information for Women on Diagnosis, Treatment, and Getting On With Your Life by Rita Baron-Faust, Jill Buyon - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Rita Baron-Faust, Jill Buyon
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developed bone erosions by the time they see a rheumatologist. “We know now that it’s important to diagnose and treat RA as early as possible to prevent joint damage and disability,” he says.
About one-quarter of women with RA develop raised, firm lumps called rheumatoid nodules. “Rheumatoid nodules are actually abnormal accumulations of cells, much like the synovial cells that we see accumulating within the joint, but they commonly occur just under the skin. Nodules often appear in an area where there’s repeated pressure, such as on the elbows where you lean them on a table, or the finger joints. Because rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease, nodules can show up in other places, such as the eye, the heart,and the lungs. They can be very destructive, very damaging, interrupting whatever is in their path of growth. And they can be disfiguring and disconcerting.”
Up to half of RA patients can develop inflammation in the linings of the chest and lungs ( pleurisy ), causing pain on taking a deep breath and breathlessness; rheumatoid nodules can also appear in the lung tissue itself, not just the lining. Inflammation can also affect the sac around the heart ( pericarditis ), producing fever, chest pain, a dry cough, and difficulty breathing. Blood vessels can also be inflamed ( vasculitis ); a common sign is tiny broken blood vessels in the cuticle area.
You may first notice the symptoms of RA during the winter, and symptoms often feel worse during the cold months and improve in warm weather.
While RA develops gradually in about 50 percent of women, with symptoms coming and going for months, a more continuous pattern eventually emerges. “It sort of locks in, and then there is a clear day-in, day-out pattern in which people are quite stiff for a long time when they wake up in the morning. The joints are swollen and red, and there’s pain when the joint is moved. If this persists for a number of days or weeks, it should be a signal that a woman needs to see a doctor,” emphasizes John H. Klippel, MD, former president and medical director of the Arthritis Foundation. “This disease needs to be diagnosed very quickly and treatment needs to be started quickly. So that increases the importance of having women recognize the signs and symptoms.”
Kathleen’s story continues:
My disease took an incredible toll on my personal life. Making love was almost impossible. Just being touched hurt so bad. It’s not like a muscle ache or something where you can lie down and relieve the pain on that part of your body . . . it feels like you’ve broken a wrist and never set it. And you’re living with this and that’s what it feels like. . . . And you’re depressed, you feel sick all the time, and you feel tired all the time. There’s a huge fatigue factor in this disease. My daughter was about three and a half, four years old, and it was hard for me to even play with her. She’d stand on the stairs and say, “Mommy, catch me,” and I’d have to scream, “Don’t jump—I can’t catch you!” One of the worst days, I remember, I had gotten out of the shower and I was sitting on the edge of the tub and I had this big plastic bottle of body lotion and I couldn’t squeeze it to get any lotion out. And itwas full. And I started to sob, I just started to cry . . . and Rachel walks in and says, “Mommy, what’s wrong?” and I said, “I can’t do this.” And she said, “Oh, I can.” And she took the bottle from me and squirted it all over my body like ketchup—which was wonderful and funny, but at the same time it was so terribly sad because I couldn’t do what a four-year-old could do.
My husband was wonderfully supportive . . . he and I had a code when we would go out for dinner or something, and if I had to get up to go to the bathroom or we would have to leave, he would come around to my chair and he would pull my chair back, and in the guise of this great courtesy, would get his hands under my arms so
About one-quarter of women with RA develop raised, firm lumps called rheumatoid nodules. “Rheumatoid nodules are actually abnormal accumulations of cells, much like the synovial cells that we see accumulating within the joint, but they commonly occur just under the skin. Nodules often appear in an area where there’s repeated pressure, such as on the elbows where you lean them on a table, or the finger joints. Because rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic disease, nodules can show up in other places, such as the eye, the heart,and the lungs. They can be very destructive, very damaging, interrupting whatever is in their path of growth. And they can be disfiguring and disconcerting.”
Up to half of RA patients can develop inflammation in the linings of the chest and lungs ( pleurisy ), causing pain on taking a deep breath and breathlessness; rheumatoid nodules can also appear in the lung tissue itself, not just the lining. Inflammation can also affect the sac around the heart ( pericarditis ), producing fever, chest pain, a dry cough, and difficulty breathing. Blood vessels can also be inflamed ( vasculitis ); a common sign is tiny broken blood vessels in the cuticle area.
You may first notice the symptoms of RA during the winter, and symptoms often feel worse during the cold months and improve in warm weather.
While RA develops gradually in about 50 percent of women, with symptoms coming and going for months, a more continuous pattern eventually emerges. “It sort of locks in, and then there is a clear day-in, day-out pattern in which people are quite stiff for a long time when they wake up in the morning. The joints are swollen and red, and there’s pain when the joint is moved. If this persists for a number of days or weeks, it should be a signal that a woman needs to see a doctor,” emphasizes John H. Klippel, MD, former president and medical director of the Arthritis Foundation. “This disease needs to be diagnosed very quickly and treatment needs to be started quickly. So that increases the importance of having women recognize the signs and symptoms.”
Kathleen’s story continues:
My disease took an incredible toll on my personal life. Making love was almost impossible. Just being touched hurt so bad. It’s not like a muscle ache or something where you can lie down and relieve the pain on that part of your body . . . it feels like you’ve broken a wrist and never set it. And you’re living with this and that’s what it feels like. . . . And you’re depressed, you feel sick all the time, and you feel tired all the time. There’s a huge fatigue factor in this disease. My daughter was about three and a half, four years old, and it was hard for me to even play with her. She’d stand on the stairs and say, “Mommy, catch me,” and I’d have to scream, “Don’t jump—I can’t catch you!” One of the worst days, I remember, I had gotten out of the shower and I was sitting on the edge of the tub and I had this big plastic bottle of body lotion and I couldn’t squeeze it to get any lotion out. And itwas full. And I started to sob, I just started to cry . . . and Rachel walks in and says, “Mommy, what’s wrong?” and I said, “I can’t do this.” And she said, “Oh, I can.” And she took the bottle from me and squirted it all over my body like ketchup—which was wonderful and funny, but at the same time it was so terribly sad because I couldn’t do what a four-year-old could do.
My husband was wonderfully supportive . . . he and I had a code when we would go out for dinner or something, and if I had to get up to go to the bathroom or we would have to leave, he would come around to my chair and he would pull my chair back, and in the guise of this great courtesy, would get his hands under my arms so
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