A letter to all the Rheumatoid Arthritis "Newbies"

A letter to all the Rheumatoid Arthritis "Newbies"

I recently received an email in regards to someone who was doing research on rheumatoid arthritis.  They asked me what I would want to know from my doctors regarding the disease, medications, and side effects.  I thought about this for awhile and years of memories, that I am sure I have chosen to forget, flooded my mind.  I began to remember the loneliness I felt and the way I felt like no one in this whole world could ever possibly know what I was going through.  I began to remember the uncertainty I felt toward my future and how I felt like everything I had planned for and everything I had worked so hard for was lost in that instant I received my diagnosis. 

My heart ached as I remembered exactly what it was like to be a newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis sufferer, or a "newbie".  So with all those emotions running through my mind I have decided to write a special letter for all the newly diagnosed sufferers out there, for I too have felt the same way.

Dear newly diagnosed fellow rheumatoid arthritis sufferer,

I know that the many emotions and all the unanswered questions running through your mind right now may be overwhelming.  You may feel like you are all alone, left with an incurable disease to bear for the rest of your life.  You may be wondering what you have done in your life that was so awful that you deserved the daily pain of this crippling, debilitating disease.  I know, because I too was suffering with these emotions and unanswered questions.   Please know you are not alone, you are never alone!

If you are newly diagnosed there may be some things that your doctor has not prepared you for.  You may begin, if you haven't already, to experience a period of depression.  Please know that this is very normal.  There is no need to punish yourself for these feelings for most of us have been through this, and there is never any right or wrong way to feel in regards to this life changing diagnosis.

For some of you this diagnosis may, at first, be a relief to your long struggle with trying to receive a diagnosis.  Many of us have felt that relief before as well, after spending so much time trying to convince the doctors that there was, in fact, something wrong with us.

The depression itself may be overwhelming.  There may be days, weeks, or months where you want to just lie in bed with the covers pulled over your head and wish that everything was all right, that you weren't sick.  When you start your new medications and your treatment plan, please know that you may not find relief from the medications right away, as some take 4-6 months to take effect.  It is normal to find frustration in this and to wonder that if the doctors were faced with this same disease, could they handle waiting 4-6 months for some type of relief.  There will be days when you wonder how you can ever make it another day with this pain.  There will always be days when you ask yourself this.  You will make it through this.   We have all felt this same way with the depression, the uncertainty, the unanswered questions, and the loneliness, but I am writing this to reassure you that life does not end here.