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Hi, I'm Lisa Emrich an RA patient advocate living with rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. I'm here to talk about how to deal with an RA diagnosis.
First off, you want to establish your medical team. If you don’t already have a rheumatologist find one. Specialist is the person who can best help you get your disease under control, and then make sure your rheumatologist and your primary care doctor communicate with each other. Mine updates each other after each visit and so everybody is in the loop. Also, make sure that they share blood work. Those test results are very important and they have to put you at the center of your medical team.
Then you want to treat the disease. First off, focus on the inflammation and the pain. Get those under control. It’s usually easier and faster to get that part of RA under control than it is to actually get the disease under control, but you want to make sure that then you treat the disease; and to do that there are medications. There are Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs or DMARDS that helps to slow down the disease and prevent damage. You know, I've learned that it only takes 3-6 months being untreated with active RA for damage to occur. So you definitely don’t want to do nothing. You’ve got to do something. Treat the disease.
Also, focus on diet and nutrition and exercise and treating yourself well. Make sure you get plenty of sleep. And then you may want to connect with others – whether it’s talking to a counselor or therapist or finding a support group in your area or support group online, reach out to other people who know what it’s like to live with RA; people who have been there, people who get it.
Make sure you're protecting your joints. One of the best things my rheumatologist prescribed to me early on was time with an occupational therapist to teach me joint protection techniques. It really helps to treat your hands well or your body well so that you don’t cause extra stress, and just know that you are not alone in this there are other people that can help you on your journey with your RA diagnosis.
And that’s how I see it as an RA patient advocate, but I recommend that you reach out to your doctors for more details or go to Google and type in Diagnosing Rheumatoid Arthritis for more information; and thanks for watching.
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