What’s in a Name?

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Rituxan infusion-Nov2015

Getting an infusion of the rheumatoid arthritis biologic drug Rituxan, hoping to put the brakes on my rheumatoid disease.

I don’t use the common name of the disease I’ve had for almost three decades. Instead, I call it rheumatoid disease, and there’s a reason.

As a writer, I love words. They have enormous power. They mold and shape how we think about and perceive the world around us. Call a forest “beautiful” and I’ll think of Bambi; call it “dark” or “looming” and I’ll think of the monsters that might be hiding in the understory hoping to shoot his mother dead. But it’s still just a forest: a thick stand of trees, plants, and underbrush that provides a thriving environment for insects, birds, and animals, along with a ready source of food, fuel, shelter–and fantasy–for human beings.

So why not use the commonly accepted name “rheumatoid arthritis” to describe my old nemesis?

Read the rest at RheumatoidArthritis.net

 

4 thoughts on “What’s in a Name?”

  2. Thanks for mentioning all the other systems affected by RD. I was recently diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease. Although RD may not cause kidney disease the meds we take sure can. I am hoping that a year off of NSAIDs will return my kidneys to close to normal. While researching this problem I did find some studies that are beginning to show that the RD itself can cause kidney damage,

    Hope you are feeling better.

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  3. I call it RA but then I have to explain it is an autoimmune disease, just like Ankylosing Spondylitis and Type 1 diabetes both I also enjoy. Ok, I don’t usually say enjoy but I always want to if the person is being mouthy about how they have RA when they mean they had a sprained ankle.

    Sometimes I get a little radical for no real reason I know. 🙂

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  4. Thanks, Wren, for telling it like it is. I’ve taken on the mission of educating those I come in contact with as to how insidious and involved this disease can truly be. The “arthritis” part is a true misnomer and reflects only a small part of the devastation it can cause.

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