The Rheumatoid Factor: 2/4/10

I find folks are curious about rheumatoid arthritis so I thought I'd occasionally post about the disease. It may be a metaphor or it may be medical. Autoimmune diseases run in packs so here's the round up of mine:

1. Rheumatoid Arthritis
2. Sjogren's Syndrome
3. Former Hashimoto's Disease
4. Reynaud's Disease
5. Interstitial Cystitis

So those are the monkeys on back.

And here's a note about the title of these blogs. The rheumatoid factor is a test that can verify someone has rheumatoid arthritis. RF is an autoantibody in 80% of people with the disease, and close to 100% in Sjogren's patients. The antibodies are directed against the organisms own tissues.

Okay, here's my metaphor for today:



RA feels like someone has turned my joint tuning keys too tightly.

Yep. That's pretty spot on.