What's in a name?!

Must say that after further consideration, perhaps Romantic Rhuematoid Aboo-who sounds a bit too much like a social disease.  Maybe like Wasabi Bone?  Maybe?  Anyone?

"maybe start carrying cattle prods for educational purposes? " I like this! LOLOL yes I vote we can do that!

So you have Arthritis in your one finger, Zap! now can you pull this?   lets zap you in both knees.. ZAP. Now can you walk!  I have told people to Google RA and  then tell me about your Arthritis. We have an Autoimmune disease simple Arthritis is not this at all.  Some People are clueless, but there are some that know what this is because they have friends or family with it. They see first hand the hell we go through.

But I vote for carrying a cattle prod for educational purposes! 

Yes! loved the cattle prod idea! specially for people who say "come on, just think of other things, ignore the pain, carry on normally!" I feel like throtteling them too!

this brought tears to my eyes...lol!  that was a good one!!

I am 100% for changing the name!!!  Everytime I tell ANYONE I have rheumatoid arthritis, they all say the same thing.....Oh yeah I have arthritis in my shoulder/knee/whatever....aren't we getting old????  (This is usually followed by them giggling or telling me to try ben-gay)  Or I had one friend say when I told her...."I hear ya.....I have a heal spur in my left foot", but I have to admit the best was when I was talking to another friend who knows I have RA (but obviously doesn't understand AT ALL what that means), somehow the subject of Lupus came up & she gives me this real serious look......"You should thank your lucky stars you don't have that, THAT is REALLY serious!!!"  My jaw just about dropped on the floor.....and I was like.....yeah I know Lupus is serious, it's an auto immune disease.....AND SO IS RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS!!!!!!  Not one person I've encountered (Other than doctors) thought that RA meant anything else but arthritis. 

So whaddya think, Roberta?  What should we call it?  What's your suggestion?  I've decided I also don't like "Wasabi Bone".  ....again....social disease, right?  So here's another I've been thinking on; Lava Hinge-a-Saurus.  Can't ya just see it?  People'd be all like "Dang!  What's the matter with you?"  And we could shake our heads sadly, "Dude, I've got the Lava-Hinge-a-Saurus!"  The ones with severe RA could say, "Dude, I've got Lava-Hinge-a-Saurus REX!"  Folks would gasp and be all like, "Damn! Lava Hinge-a-Saurus?!  Man!  Can I like get you a coke or something??"  See?!  Now THAT'S what I'M talkin' about!! 

I vote for something scarrier.....that way it is taken more seriously....like "Chronic disease that deforms, attacks organs, can make you disabled, extremely painful, sick from the side effects of all the medicine".....well that's too long, just some of the things I wouldn't mind having on a card to explain it.......lol 

Ooooo!!  CARDS!!!  Maybe not quite as fun as Lene's cattle prod idea, but still!  CARDS!!  Hey Roberta, that's not bad!!

Yeah.....we wouldn't even have to say Rheumatoid Arthritis....when you see someone & they say "how are you?" ....just hand them a card!!   Or maybe we should have tee shirts made up?   

Grrrl?!  I'm serious!  I am totally digging the card idea.  Ok, if I get some printed up at some point I'll post a picture.  I swear!  Wow, now my head is just spinning.  What do I put on the CARD!  Needs to be enough information, but not too much.  Kinda funny but still gets the point accross.  Could even have a link to this site!  Oooooh, I have steam coming out my ears cuz my brain is working.  I'll get a T-shirt that says "Roberta Rules!"  while I'm at it, k?  Yes, me likey the card concept.

Oh my gosh! This is the best of all posts on RA. I just finished writing a friend about my RA because she was trying to get me to take vitamins of all kinds because it helped her toes. I laughed so hard at the names. Great idea! I really like the "Lava-Hinge-a-Saurus REX!" Who doesn't show interest in dinosaurs? Put that on a card and bumper sticker with the handicapped sign and have the cattle prod for demo purposes. I have to save these posts so I can get a good laugh and lots of good ideas. Thanks everyone! It is Rheumatoid because that is the Latin word for roaming...it roams around and hits where it wants us to hurt. It stays there till damage is done then moves somewhere else but can stay there and still move. I am sure the immune system has a life of it's own and plots against us. We could call it "humongous bone rot".  I dare someone to say they have that too.

Hey, fellow L-H-A-S-R's!

Thanks for the good belly laugh!  I would like to order a pile of cards, Roberta.  I've been explaining RA to my mother for a year now, yet she still will say something like, "I think I've got what you've got, now.  My elbow is sore today."  Like it is contagious or something.  Hmmmm.  Maybe that misconception can be useful.... 

I agree a new name might help, people still wouldn't understand RA, but at least they would know that they don't know.  I vote for systemic rheumatoid disease, then people wouldn't think of just some joints aching.  The cattle prod sounds interesting, but I have to cut people slack, as I didn't know about it either until I got this disease.

These are all too funny.  When I was diagnosed with RA my friends were like take some Tylenol and get your A** out here and play some basketball!  They also said things like you are too young to have arthritis your doctor must be nuts.  They started calling me grandpa too (Gotta love your friends).  I told them no it is not ARTHRITIS ARTHRITIS it is something else more severe.  They still don't understand.  I am all for renaming it something else more fitting.  My name for it is "Human Autoinflammatory Bone and tissue destroying Disease".  Tell that to people and watch as they ask, "is that contagious?", and you can calmly and so seriously answer "extremely!" 

I laughed so hard reading this post I have tears coming down my cheeks, my teenage son thinks I have lost my mind.  Thanks to all of you for writing I needed that.  I also hate the name RA, I think people hear the arthritis part and that is all they hear and assume that's it.  It is frustrating.  I went to the ER one evening with my appendix about to burst and they made me lie around and wait while they looked up my meds in a big book because they had never heard of most of them. It's nice and a little disheartening to know there are others who have shared experiences.  Personally, I kind of like the cattle prod idea.

Same thing happened to me, only NOT as serious a situation! (OMG ....glad your ok!) The PA in my doc's office was doing a check up & I asked a question about one of my RA meds, & she looked at me & said "I don't know I've never dealt with those type of meds before"  & I was like "well......you NOW have a patient who has RA....maybe this office better brush up on it!"  I mean seriously, they say the best treatment is to have a support team of doctors working together with each other......that means REGULAR doctors too.  Don't just leave it up to the RA doc. 

LOLOLOLOL.. OHO MY! LOLOLOL. I love the bat and swinging it! I would come to see you in jail, but them again if you had a judge with RA I am sure you would get off for taking that swing! LOLOL. You know I have a few family members with Lupus, and these two RA and Lupus are in the same family. In many ways they are the same. But.. My sister who has Lupus walks fine. Yes she gets tired, but she can use her hands and feet without all this pain. Now the doctor feels I have Lupus with RA. :(

No matter what one you have it all sucks!

I am so happy I have such wonderful people to share with, to laugh with and to cry with. God Bless all of you.. :)

 so true, i'm so scared that everyone's not going to understand when i go back to college next month (same day as my second Rheumy appointment :S) but even if they don't i can come and laugh about their sillyness here :) We'll probably all end up in jail for swinging at people, i'll try and get a transfer to America so we can all be in the same one LOL

The problem is the word ARTHRITIS. Makes everyone think of their nan or their dad's sporting injury. If it was called... i dunno... Autoimmune Rheumatic disease or something else scary like Lupus then people might understand. They just think all arthritis is the same, and i confess so did i until i started to realise i was ill. I told my dad i was gonna carry leaflets and give them out at college, same principle as the cards Lol