When is RD going to be renamed?

[Damaged]

I find it so very frustrating. I am tired of educating health professionals about RD. It seems once someone here Arthritis, they know what it is. It is one thing dealing with friends and family but doctors, nurses, dentists etc should simply know better. The same applies to insurance and governments.

Arthritis is a symptom of inflammation of the synovial fluid and lining of joints but it is primarily an AUTOIMMUNE disease. It is NOT poor nutrition, diet may be beneficial to reducing inflammation but that is it. There is no magic water, or cure. Do you think insurance companies would pay for Biologics if diet worked?

[gwynedd]

Here here!

Couldn't agree more, as soon as you say the word arthritis people assume

1: they've got a touch of it.! Grrr

2: They know all about it. And

3: That the warm weather will soon make me better! Ect....

I've started just saying that I have an autoimmune disease, as this is what it is. People seem to respond in a more considerate way when faced with something their unsure about.

With this being said however , I had no idea about RA and could have been guilty of exactly these responses. So I shouldn't judge others lack of knowledge too harshly, excluding medical professionals who should know better.

A change in name would help enormously with re-educating people.

[Damaged in reply to gwynedd]

Sadly despite a lifetime of working with disabled I had no idea. It seems a well kept secret, and now I know why.

Now I give them what they want to see and keep t to myself. They recently created a device for people with Parkinson's. An arm band is used to have wearer feel the tremors as they occur. The goal was to enable health care providers experience what it is like. I cannot wait for one that enables them to feel our pain, first hand. I have no doubt they would be blown away. Just because I can keep it to myself doesn't mean I should have to.

[Hidden]

Totally agree! Only other RA people understand! How do you go about changing the name? Can it be done? It sure needs to 😞

[Damaged]

There is a great article, A Crisis in RA. I will search for it . Written by a Rheumatologist. He describes the issues relating to name change and how it affects the specialty as well as fund raising, insurance etc. I will see if I can locate it as I have forgotten his name lol.

[Damaged]

It is Identity Crisis for RA by Dr Franklin Adams. I do not know how to create link. At least not at the moment. It is a great article. He seems to truly understand what the experience is like from a patients perspective.