Nothing More than Feelings: How Doctors Minimize RA Reality
Updated August 30, 2020 Catastrophizing is a popular concept in medicine, particularly when dealing with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic pain. You’ll find endless studies and articles on the concept, described as negative self statements, feelings or coping strategies. For instance, someone saying “this is the worst pain I’ve ever had” or “what if I can’t…
Catastrophizing and Good Doctoring
I’ve been thinking. And what with being on vacation, there’s actually been mental room to move some ideas around, played connect the dots and whatnot. Settle in, this is a long one… More specifically, I’ve been thinking about catastrophizing. This is a concept discussed in the field of rheumatology. The concept states that people who…
A Question for the DIP Deniers
I’m not RA for a long time and I’ve now worked in a job that exposes me to a lot of news about RA for several years and yet, I still learn new things every day. For instance, the DIP debate. The DIP is short for the distal interphalangeal joint. Which is the joint on…
Figments of the Imagination
Jenni over at ChronicBabe had a plan for her month-long sabbatical: ask for guest posters. My contribution appears today and is cross-posted here. Thanks for including me, Jenni! “I’m so relieved I’m not crazy!” Someone I know has just – finally – received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. When she told me what happened in…
Boundaries
Recently, I had the unmitigated joy of meeting a new medical professional. As part of this meeting, a bit of an assessment of my upper body – particularly shoulders and neck -was deemed necessary. I made sure I did my usual thing, told them that due to various injuries, damages and fibromyalgia, they ought to…
Come Rant With Me
I saw this article in The Guardian a while back and have been nursing a low-level seethe ever since. And now is the time to let it off the leash. Shall we start with the headline? Failure to Act on Early Signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis Could Prove Fatal! And already, my heart is in my…
Validity, Perception & Pain
A little while ago, Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior posted a fantastic rant about the “well-established fact” that people who have RA have lower pain thresholds and that “they worsen the perception of a pain through their ‘maladaptive responses’ to their pain. Apparently, the medical literature has very decided opinions about the way other people experience pain….
Being A Wuss: A Political Act?
The other day, in response to someone’s inquiry of how I was, I found myself prattling on about the details of my pain levels and I realized that I often do this with people who knew me well and with whom I speak often. And it’s been nagging at me a bit and making me…
Customer Care
A while back, I read an article – somewhere on HealthCentral? I forget – about doctors in the US requiring their patients to sign an agreement not to rate them on e.g., RateMD before they would treat them and it’s been rattling around in my mind for a couple of months. Aside from the blackmail…
Hobbled
A little while ago, I ran into (not literally) a woman I know, making her way slowly and painfully and on crutches into the building in which she lives. As she has been using a wheelchair permanently for over a year now, no longer able to walk further than tiny distances requiring only a few…
I Thought It Was a Science?
Earlier this week, I read a post on one of the HealthCentral sites by one of their medical experts. This doctor started by saying she did not “believe in” a particular medical problem and continued to explain how she had come around by experiencing it herself. The particular site, doctor and medical problem are irrelevant…
- « Previous
- 1
- 2