MAC Region: JL Novitas
I’m Christina, wife to a police detective, and mom to a son in college and a daughter in high school. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, writing, gardening, and cooking. I have a passion for traveling, and have a bucket list a mile long.
I was diagnosed with RA in 1987, when I was a junior in college. Several years ago, at the beginning of a serious flare, I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
I’m still the only one in my family with any type of autoimmune arthritis, so it was a challenge at first. I’d never heard of RA. I was fortunate in that I was diagnosed fairly quickly. I have a birth defect that necessitated many surgeries of my left hand, so when I began having problems with my right middle finger, I saw a doctor at the university health center. In turn, he suggested I follow up with my hand surgeon, who agreed with the preliminary diagnosis, and sent me to a rheumatologist. It was he who made the final decision. When I first heard of the fibromyalgia, it was after a period of remission. When I began having serious muscle problems, I saw a rheumatologist who didn’t believe that I could even have RA because “my hands looked too good”. He felt I had fibromyalgia instead; all of the 18 pressure point checks were positive. He suggested a secondary diagnosis when my labwork came back positive for RA.
For me, my greatest challenge is never knowing what I’m going to feel like on any given day. Fatigue is my enemy, and I hardly ever get through the day without a nap. If I do make plans, I know I can’t do more than one major thing per day. For example, if I decide I want to go to my Zumba class, I know I’ll be too wiped out afterwards to go grocery shopping. It’s a challenge each day to prioritize activities, and anytime I can find an alternative, I take it.
Any chronic illness can lead to depression, and while sometimes I do feel blue, I also have great hope for the future. To me, being hopeful and positive is the only way to approach life. I have much to be thankful for, and I wake up every day glad to be alive. In spite of the frustrations, I am excited for the changes that are occurring in the medical research fields; medications now are much more sophisticated than when I first began this journey. I truly believe a cure will happen in my lifetime.
I decided to become an advocate because I feel there are many patients who can’t speak for themselves. When social media began to be popular, I became part of many groups, and it amazed me that so many people with RA had so few facts about the disease. It seemed as though the same questions were always being asked and discussed, and not necessarily with the newly diagnosed. I try to show that having this disease is not the end of everything; indeed, this year marks my 30th RA-nniversary. I also hope to one day attend conferences, and perhaps even testify on Capitol Hill, promoting awareness, and at the same time, help those who are not able to do so.
