Possi and Kevin

Possi, I'm so sorry to hear that you have so many overlaps, it just isn't fair. It's good that you are happy with life and enjoy friends and family. That you do what you can and get out and about. Pred is a wonderful drug when you need it. All the drugs for these diseases have bad side effects and in my opinion, at least you know what you are getting with pred.

Kevin, your Mother was amazing to have to deal with RA and have no treatment! She was a strong, inspiring woman.

I do think the key in dealing with these diseases is attitude. With that I will disclose to you that my Mom has locked herself up in her house and dwells on every little bad thing. RA has affected her heart also, she refused emergency treatment, made them release her and ended up back in the hospital within 24 hours almost dead. She finally accepted treatment. But because her brain was deprived oxygen she now has mental capacity issues, almost like bad alzheimers, not exactly like it but it's the closest I can use to explain. For almost 3 decades she has shut herself off from life. She's refused MTX and other treatments. She finally did Remicade for a couple years but was dissappointed when it didn't "fix her hands" and the doctor was "too far away" (an hour away), so she quit. She was so far gone by that point that it did help her pain but nothing else. Her muscles are so atrophied from just sitting around for 30 years that she can barely walk, yet again, refuses to go anywhere in a wheelchair. She has no friends anymore, her sisters and brother don't want to have anything to do with her because she never reciprocated, never even tried to have a relationship with them, all she ever did was b!$%h about them and now she's mad that they don't ever come around.

I'm not complaining, I'm just telling it like it is. It IS sad and it hurts me to see her like she is. I would take her pain for her, if I could. I would like to give her a day of euphoric happiness. I would do anything for her, if she would only ask, for I do not know what she wants and there is no reply from her when I prod. She has given up an did so many years ago.

Kevin, I learned from my Mom too. But I learned how not to be, it is self destructive.