Now  that winter is upon us and we face the cold weather not to mention the dampness it is hard for those around us to truly understand the pain we go through. Yes they may say I understand but then they look at us and you can see the wonder in their face. Is the pain that serious, is it that difficult to walk or bend. Yes there are some people out there that thrive on sympathy and the least little pain becomes a life or death issue for them. But for those of us with RA it is different in each case and the amount of pain is different with each of us. I have days that if I use my doctors scale for pain 1 being the least and 5 being the worst most of my days hover around the 3 or 3.5 level but come winter it gets much worse and goes to the 5 level.

With every step I take you can actually hear the joints in my legs feet and hips pop and crack and my wife has even commented to my doctors on this. There are days I can not even get out of bed as I can not stand on my own to walk.

Now with this new issue of my jaw and the holidays coming it makes it even more difficult to enjoy the season when pain is so great one can not even eat without being in tears. The VA has offered me pain pills since they do not have a doctor that can examine this problem here. Yes I wait till the 12th of this month till I see the specialist that I found through the local hospital and hope he can do more than just offer pain killers.

For those of us that suffer with RA and for their families I wish the best that is possible for this Holiday season.