Living Life After A Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis

A rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis can throw you for a loop. Partly because many can receive this diagnosis as young as in their 30s and 40s. And it can force them to worry about how RA – with its feet pain, hand stiffness, and hip aches – will affect their future.

Professional folk-rock singer/songwriter Rain Perry talked to Lifescript.com about how she felt when she received her rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis at age 22. Since she was a professional guitar player, she was worried the diagnosis would shatter her career hopes and her dreams of being a star musician.

Like many others with rheumatoid arthritis, however, Perry learned to deal with the symptoms, found a medication that saved her, and is now achieving her music dreams at 44.

(You can read her whole story at “Life After a Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis.”)

Some of her tips:

1. Educate yourself about your disease. Perry says that reading everything you can about rheumatoid arthritis will help. Also bring written questions to your doctor’s appointments and make sure you feel comfortable with all the answers you receive.
2. Don’t focus on what you can’t do, but on what you can. When Perry wished she could be “super mom,” running along the athletic fields with her daughters, she forced herself to stop. It just made her sad. Instead, she learned to focus on what she could do: sing with them, prepare meals in the kitchen together, cheer them on at their events, etc.
3. Find a support system. Perry said a strong system of support has helped her tremendously, even just getting out of the doldrums.

To learn even more about rheumatoid arthritis, be sure to visit Lifescript’s new online Rheumatoid Arthritis Health Center, where you can find articles, quizzes, recipes, and plenty of other rheumatoid arthritis information.

The information contained in this article is provided for informational purposes only and is not, nor is it ever intended to be, a substitute for professional medical advice or professional recommendations, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician(s) or other qualified healthcare provider(s).