World Arthritis Day Letters

Many people have written letters to the Prime Minister for World Arthritis Day.  Some explaining the impact the condition can have on them, what can be done to make life easier and others including a diary of what each day can bring.  

Below is a letter written by Beth.  

Helly vs Arthur

What a difference 10 months makes!

Rewind back to last September... I'd not been particularly well and was looking forward to a tranquil week away in Italy.  Spending my days relaxing by Lake Iseo, sipping frappe's in a little cafe, reading the books I'd not quite got round to, and just absorbing myself in the Italian culture...

Media Tart

Why such a title, I hear you ask?  Well that's a nickname that I've come by over the years.  When media opportunities arise, I seem to be at the right place, at the right time so to speak

My first taste of 'fame' was winning a local baby competition.... The prize, a leather bound photo album, which I still have today.  The winning photo.....

Disability = Old and Wheelchair User?

Ok, so this is going to be a bit of a rant post, mainly because of peoples reactions to me parking in a disabled bay...

When it first started happening I put it down to people just being protective of disabled bays and ensuring they weren't being abused... I was quite happy that someone was 'fighting my corner' so to speak.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step....

As the saying goes, its not the destination that matters, but the journey that you take and my journey over the last 20 years has certainly taken many directions.

Best Foot Forward?

You may recall one of my previous posts - Give A Girl..... - where I share my journey of seeing a podiatrist....


Well the shoes are off being made as I type but in the meantime I was also referred to a foot surgeon as my big toe is doing its own thing and being a right pain in the ass!

Give A Girl The Right Shoes And She Can Conquer The World!

I went for an appointment with a podiatrist on Friday to discuss footwear.  Its been about 20yrs since I last wore orthopaedic shoes and I was quite anxious about the whole thing.

It's All About The Confidence!

Just before I sat down to write this, I was freezing my ass off in this cold weather!  That was soon sorted though with a hot chocolate and a blanket.. I'm now as snug as a bug in a rug and my joints have stopped whinging.

The theme for this post is a fairly simple one.... Its all about the confience and for those of you who are Gok Wan fans, you'll know exactly what I mean.

An Unwanted Visitor

In the post 'Its Been A While', I mentioned that I became ill shortly after my Italy trip.  Well here is where I will finally fill you in on what happened....


So grab a coffee, a comfy seat and I shall begin.....

Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy Nails It!!

I love having a read of other peoples blogs.. some are quite amusing and others are a definite eye-opener!


The next one I would describe as jaw dropping because in all my years of having arthritis, no-one has ever come close to describing it just how this guy does....

He goes by the name of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy and has a 60-Second Guide To RA.....

Below is a taster... with the full version being available in PDF from his website



Okay, let’s pretend that your body is Gotham City. Your immune system
is Batman. Your joints? Well, they are tiny bat signals. Batman -
thinking that Gotham City is being invaded - is forever going to all the
bat signals and attacking everything in the vicinity, leaving behind lots of
damage. (He never seems to realize that these bat signals are actually
false alarms.)




No words can accurately describe the physical pain that is caused by
rheumatoid arthritis. (Although this mental image, for me, does come
close: A Mack truck ran over me. And then it backed up, and ran over me
again!) Rheumatoid arthritis pain is chronic and is not something that
can be easily fixed with just an aspirin. This pain can be one of the most
crippling aspects of living with RA.

First of many I hope...

Well I finally got round to signing up to one of these things... For many years I have kinda wanted to share my experiences as someone who not only enjoys writing but also as someone who has a long term medical condition. In my case its a condition called juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which basically means I was diagnosed with a childhood form of rheumatoid arthritis when I was 3 years old, and its affected a majority of my joints.

One place its not affected is my mouth as I have more rabbit than Sainsburys, but it has affected my vocal chords which means every so often I sound like I am on helium... hilarious to those around me!

The arthritis itself has been in remission since I was 12 thanks to a combination of drugs, Methotrexate (a form of chemotherapy) and Deflazacort (a form of steroid). Unfortunately, it was also an aggressive form of arthritis so the damage was done to my joints and I've had some of them replaced (cue Bionic Woman!!)

Latest one was 12 days ago, a total left hip replacement. It was a success and I had my clips taken out today which feels soooo good! Now starts the hard work... building the muscles back up...

So anyway that's it from me for now... no doubt I will pop back later... I'm guessing these blogs things kinda work from random thoughts... at least that's the way I'm gonna look at it so if I start going off on a tangent, slap me back down to earth!

Bye for now!

H x