Yup, a flare-up is like 'flu. You can bring one on by being silly and trying to be Superman even when your body is asking you to slow down, but often they just happen. And with RA, you can change by the hour. So even if you need two hands to lift a fork at lunchtime, you can be miles better by supper. Or not - there are no rules! No, fortunately I haven't got deformed joints, and I hope not to, as my two drugs are working well. I have no stamina though, and no strength, but these things are sadly common in so many ailments. At least there is a lot of help out there, gadgets and shortcuts and things. I don't have physio, but some do. The sad part is you say you have rheumatoid arthritis and people only tend to hear the "arthritis" part and think you've got what their granny's got! Nay, nay and thrice nay! You have an auto-immune disease akin to AIDS and even children can get it. In the club where I drink there are four of us with RA that I know about - we were all friends before we knew the others had it, it sort of came out in conversation. One of us wears wrist supports, and you can see his fingers can't open properly, and he and one of the others are on anti-TNF self-injections as their RA is more aggressive. The other two of us are okay with conventional drugs. But catch me on a bad flare-up day and I need help to rise from a chair. There are also few things more humiliating than needing half an hour to manage to wipe your bum after a visit to the loo, as your fingers are too weak and painful to grip the paper.
