So just about every morning, I hop on the computer and do a news search for rheumatoid arthritis. I like to keep up to date on medicines being developed and new discoveries… Part of me secretly thinks that there will be a cure and I’ll find it via Google instead of the news for some reason.
I used to see obits with one or two really old people who had RA, with little mention of how the disease affected their last years. Lately, though, I’ve been seeing a lot more stories on younger people dying due to RA-related complications…
Like Jim Amos for instance:
… lost his 27-month battle with an ugly strain of rheumatoid arthritis. The autoimmune disease crippled his lungs, left him a prisoner to the oxygen tanks that kept him breathing and finally took his life.
So this man was pretty young, considering, and died because of lung problems? And he only had the disease for 27 months?
What the heck???
I wrote a post a few months back on the worst things that could happen – I did investigating and found serious issues like lung problems, but not death. Yet, it seems as though more people are dying from complications of their RA. Why? Is it just a misdiagnosis?
I’ve been having more lung problems lately, which I’m sure is making me freak out a little more about this particular story. I do have asthma as well, so it’s hard to say which issue these problems are related to. I’ve had this disease for basically my entire life, and was never told that this could happen. I find it alarming that this is a possibility for those with RA – to die?
Cue panic attack on dying and what happens after death – not only to me but to everyone I love – in 5, 4, 3…
The key to minimizing your health risks with the condition is to get monitored by a rheumatologist on a regular basis. Then, make sure you are dutifully taking the medications that you have been prescribed. My wife has had RA for 8 years and is reasonably stable. However, under supervision of her rheumatologist, she has changed medications 3 times based on changes in her symptoms.