What is RD?

[Esmereld]

I keep seeing RD and I don’t know what it means. Someone enlighten me please.

[Jewels94]

Many people consider that Rheumatoid Arthritis should be referred to as Rheumatoid Disease as it is not just arthritis

[Esmereld in reply to Jewels94]

Thank you. I thought there would be a simple explanation.

[Hidden in reply to Esmereld]

I started saying RD as it’s so much more and stops me from wanting to slap anyone who has a little arthritis is their thumb and groups it in to the RA brackets as they’re waving their thumb in my face!😀

[Sjhoney in reply to Hidden]

That made me lol 😄

Also folk offering homespun remedies 🙄, ‘my Grammy used to wave a sprig of holly over her joints on the second Tuesday of the month’

We should compile a book, ‘Things not to say to folk with RD’ 😉😊

[nomoreheels in reply to Sjhoney]

Not a book but still... creakyjoints.org/living-wit...

[Esmereld]

Yeah I agree. Never thought about it like that. All the rest of the stuff we get. People just think our hands are a bit stiff. I’m chuckling a bit. If only they knew.

[Ruth12345]

My Rheumy says it should be RD as it's a disease that has arthritis as part of the disease but it's not just arthritis

[Recorder500L]

Yep, I always refer to my disease as Rheumatoid Disease (RD) as it is much more than just Arthritis and causes pain to most of the joints in my body. Many people have no idea what the Rheumatoid bit means. Take Care.

[StormySeas]

I much prefer to call it RD as what's known as RA is a actually a systemic disease which affects the whole body, not just the joints.

Anyone who knows nothing about it, quite rightly assumes it's just a painful joint - I did, before I was diagnosed. I knew it was meant to be really bad, but I had no idea of why or how.

Calling it RD gives me some control over the disease and people's perception of it. I feel self conscious saying 'rheumatoid disease' but I hope eventually everyone in the medical world will use the term as it's a much better description of what we have....

[nomoreheels]

healthunlocked.com/nras/pos...

[Mmrr]

RD never RA !