Downhill all the way for me. Wrecked my career as well.

Peter

People with RA get to participate in ASA, but people without any form
of arthur do not.
LOL

    Rose   @}>->--
    Being educated means that rather than fearing the unknown, one seeks to understand it. RB

    Please remove "Ima" to reply.

We won't get into whether its true, but I've heard some of the meds we take
seem to help prevent Alzheimer's.

Oh, and MTX controls my asthma better than my regular asthma meds.  That one
is well known, they just don't normally use it for asthma since it has
possible bad side effects when compared to other asthma meds.

Jo

well, I have PA rather than RA.  My psoriasis was never severe enough to
justify taking systemic meds for it, but it was quite annoying and persistent
in really tender areas.  The DMARDs I'm on now for my PA have me completely
clear of Ps for the first time in over 30 years.  Didn't realize how much it
was wearing on me until I was clear.  What a relief.

And when a friend with periodic back problems asked me about it once, I said
I was glad to learn I COULD endure some of the pain levels I had.  I will do
everything I reasonably can to avoid being in such pain, but I did learn that
I am much stronger than I realized before.  

And for me, my first really bad bout was when I was single and was in fact an
element in the eventual breakup between me and the fellow I was seeing then.  
Having gone through it once single, I am really aware of the ways my husband
helps me out now.  He's a treasure.

And my family has this major autoimmune thing going on, but no one's gotten
more than one autoimmune thing for some reason.  So I figure having the Ps
and PA means I WON'T get the Type 1 diabetes.....

And then there's all the friends I've met here at ASA............

Hi Stuart
A positive if you can look at it that way is you cant push yourself.
Normally if you had a pain and say where cycling up a hill you would push
through it but with RA if you push through it you will pay for it later.
Majorly :-))
RA is ok if you know your limitations.
Susan

I've been tortured with mouth ulcers all my life. The RA didn't cure
them, but Enbrel utterly did.

I also haven't had cold symptoms since I went on TNF blockers. I can
still feel the tickle from the virus, but Enbrel and/or Humira control
my inflammatory symptoms so well it stops the runny nose and sore
throat and fever-- which meshes well with current theories of how the
cold virus works: e.g. it only attacks a tiny patch of tissue in the
nasopharynx. . .then your body kicks up a cytokine storm and makes you
miserable.

Not any disease prevention to mention but a couple of personal positives.

It made my husband and I decide we would like a baby as we had to decide
sooner rather then later so I could have a baby then go on the drugs I have
to be on that im not allowed to be pregnant on.

It also reinforced to me Ide married the best man in the world, im reminded
of this even more so each day when Im flaring or feeling depressed about the
disease and he is so incredibly understanding and amazing and helpful about
it.

Kim

Good start, Stuart!  Nanny