My name is Alice I am 29 years old and I was just diagnosed with R.A my blood work shows that my factor is a 38. I am in pain all day everyday and the doctors found a lession on my spine. I know there is no way I will be able to go back to work like this it is hard enough to get up everyday and care for my 4 kids. Can people with R.A get disability and if so does the government give us a hard time because I just signed up for it.
7/ 9/09 11:00am
Yes, you can absolutely qualify for SSD - I recently wrote a post about SSD which contains a number of links to helpful resources that can help you through the process. Good luck!
7/ 9/09 12:37pm
There are a couple of posts that may help to make people understand your pain. I wrote one a little while ago about taking meds for the pain and Karen Lee Richards over on our Chronic Pain site wrote a letter to family and friends that offers a great idea for really making people understand.
It's hard to adjust to having this kind of illness and if you're able, I would recommend counseling, especially if you can find somebody who practices cognitive therapy. It teaches you different ways of thinking about yourself, the world and you with a chronic illness and it can be very helpful. You can also direct your boyfriend to our area about the basics of RA, which may give him some more insight into the disease and you can check out our area for the newly diagnosed where there are posts on a number of different aspects of living with RA, e.g., relationships and parenting.
Hang in there. It's not always this hard. Once you get your RA treated, you'll start to feel better - although you'll probably always have some level of pain, it will become easier to live with it.
7/ 9/09 3:40pm
I love the letter to family and friends ! I printed it up and let all of them read it...cause,as you know..SOME PEOPLE JUST DON'T GET IT
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By Alice— Last Modified: 12/25/10, First Published: 07/09/09
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Thank you so much cause I have always worked and worked hard I always had two jobs at one time and now it hurts me so bad just to pick up my 8 month old son. I just found this site last night and I love it cause I dont know anyone who has R.A and it is nice to be able to talk with other people who understand the pain of everyday life. I am still trying to understand why me I am still so young. My boyfriend doesnt understand why I have to take pain killers he doenst understand how much pain I am in sometimes he treats me like some kind of drug addict when before this I never took anything for pain. I tried to tell him that the pills dont get me high they just help with the pain.