Blog

Got big goals for your life with rheumatoid arthritis in 2022? In my first column of the year, I share strategies to get you there:

“NOT TOO LONG ago, I set aside time to review 2021 and create some goals for the future. As a small business owner, I am very clear in the fact that my career will only grow if I have a streamlined plan, actionable goals, and I set aside time to regularly assess my progress. But as I took a break from this goal-setting to play with my cat, I realized that those of us who live with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) don’t usually approach our health with the same goal-setting approach, and that maybe we should.

Nurturing a “growth mindset” is one of the first things you learn about running a business of any size and most of us understand that being assertive in the pursuit of success is an essential part of this. But when we show up at a doctor’s office, it’s often a completely different experience. We sink into a passive patient role and rely on someone else (the rheumatologist, say) to decide what happens next. Which is normal. Few of us can summon up the energy to be assertive and organized in the midst of the flare from hell. Aside from a conversation about how the meds are working, goal setting is rarely part of these encounters. But it should be.

Rheumatology care has been transformed by the discovery of biologic medications. In the past when we didn’t have effective medications, the approach to treatment was called “go low and go slow,” taking you from aspirin to anti-inflammatories to a few milder RA drugs and on the way, your RA usually galloped on ahead, causing irreversible damage and disability. Now that we have the potential for remission, the goal has changed to early and aggressive treatment. This is called the “treat to target” model which includes regular assessment of treatment effectiveness and, if necessary, adjusting medication so you can get into remission.

Sound familiar? Right there, you have a growth mindset with a clearly defined goal, regular check-ins and, if necessary, the option to pivot to something that might work better. But for this model of care to change your life, the conversations with your doctors also need to change. As in most things related to chronic illness, it’s about taking the lead in your life and your healthcare and this is where the business model can help. Let’s take a look at the four steps involved in this kind of process.”

Read more about the strategies to get your RA under control on HealthCentral.