RA: A Laughing Matter?

Do you use humor to cope with the challenges RA (or life in general) bring you?  Is there anything funny about RA?  

Read my latest article about humor and rheumatoid arthritis at MyRACentral.com and then share how you use, or don't use, humor to cope with a chronic illness.

 

Comments

[Mom]

ABSOLUTELY true!!!!!

[Jesse]

Hello out there!
I have to tell you, I just found this blog and am inspired. I was diagnosed with RA about 2.5 years ago (at 33) and have been in mild denial. I take plaquinil and aleve, but don't do much else. I am hoping I wake up one day, pain free!
But reading your blog is giving me the motivation to do more. I can feel better than this, right?!?

Thanks and I look forward to more!

[sara]

Jesse- Glad you found me! If what you are doing isn't working for you, you should absolutely see your rheumatologist to get it adjusted. It's important to make sure no damage is occurring...plus, you might very well be able to feel much better!

[Marissa]

I completely agree - you need to use a bit of humor to emotionally get by with RA. I was diagnosed with JRA at about age 3.5 and still have it at 30. There is no way to survive a childhood with chronic illness without finding a way to make the other kids - and yourself - laugh about it. Making people laugh by referring to myself as the "tin man" and asking for my oil can was much easier to handle than watching other kids imitate my limp!

Nowadays when I get frustrated that it is still here (and worse) I still find that using humor is a great way to prevent myself from falling into the looming depression and turn the frustration into amusement instead. Currently, I am on prednisone for a flare but like to say instead that I am beefing up with some "'roids."

[HealingWell]

Without humor, how could we endure what we do. Thanks for reminding us! ~ Peter

[Lauretta]

Hi,
Yes, I definitely believe that humour is used in a lot of aspects of my life - or as much as possible - when trying to deal with the pain of my JRA. If I'm having a really painful episode, I might watch a comedy, because laughter really is th best cure. I remember on my 18th birthday I switched the candles around to 81 and my friends and I laughed about it the whole night...as the joke really worked. Like Peter mentioned above, it somehow does make it easier to endure the harder things in life.

I'm currently working on a zine and was wondering if you'd be interested in contributing a blog or some other RA-related writing to it? I’m doing it as a project for college and it’s an attempt on my behalf to collaborate short stories and opinion pieces from others who have RA/JRA. I hope to strengthen the community by developing this zine, but I need people to contribute, so that I have content to publish!
If you are interested, please visit my blog and look under the post labelled “Attention all Arthritis bloggers..opportunity to have your words published in a zine.”

Hope to hear from you soon,
Regards,
Lauretta