Before rheuma
Hands quick
Hands dexterous
Skilled and sure, right-brain
for left hand, left-brain for right.
Hands grasp
Hands pull
Strong and stout, trusty
Confident, thoughtless
Heedless.
After rheuma
Hands dull
Hands ungraceful
Skill made moot, in pain
made cautious, hesitant touch
Hands ache
Hands grieve
Weak and thin, brittle
Unflexible, careful
Thoughtful.
RheumaBlog 
Beautiful combination of medical reality and artistic transcendence! With a mind as transformative as yours I’m sure that RA won’t ever overcome you Wren.
This poem is an excellent informative piece for people (and doctors who only sometimes qualify as people) to really “feel” the experience of RA.
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Beautiful! I thought it was interesting that the last word you used was thoughtful- it made me think about how, with RA, we have to be more cautious with what we’re doing and in that, we’re more present in what we’re doing.
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Wow! You write very well.
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I especially like “hands ache, hands grieve.” Makes me want to use those lines in a song.
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Looks like you were following me around at work this week, I dropped everything I tried to pick up. Excellent post.
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