Making Life More Enjoyable
A lot of women are concerned about rheumatoid arthritis and pregnancy complication. Most medications that are designed to treat RA are critical to the patients who use them. The thought of having to “quit” or stop taking medication to try to become pregnant and thereafter can be frightening.
I’d like to share my personal experience dealing with RA during pregnancy, and then I am going to dive deeper into some of the most common questions women and men have around pregnancy and RA. [Read more…]
Ever since I was 14, I have been suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). This disease has made my quest for a healthy lifestyle a little bit rocky and bumpy. Like so many people out there, I have tried all sorts of medications and combinations of natural healing strategies. I have a personal belief that rheumatoid arthritis pain relief can happen with more than just drugs.
Perhaps it is good to start with a short rheumatoid arthritis pain description. We can describe arthritis pain as the inflammation of the joints that can result to stiffness, redness and swelling. This pain is normally caused by a disturbance of joints as well as tendons in the form of inflammation. The joints become swollen, stiff and tender. In addition, fatigue and muscle aches are a major daily challenge for most with this chronic disease.
RA usually begins slowly, starting in a few joints and then spreading to other joints in the coming weeks, months and years. As time goes on, RA involves more and more joints on both sides of the body in a “symmetrical” pattern. This explains the need for the Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain Scale (RAPS) instrument, which is a quantitative, self-report 24-item instrument that works on a single-score mode. It is used to examine the severity of the RA pain and the RA disease progression in general. Indeed, RA pain is different from other forms of chronic pain and that explains the essence of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain Scale.
Foot pain is one of the more common problems that happens with rheumatoid arthritis. Pain and stiffness in the joints of the toes and the ankles can make walking and standing difficult, especially in the morning. It may take you a couple of hours to reduce the stiffness in these joints so that walking is possible. So what are the best ways to manage rheumatoid arthritis and foot pain? The following is a brief overview of what causes foot pain in rheumatoid arthritis and what types of things you can do to relieve it. [Read more…]
