Sir Christopher Lee

Posted on by Grayson

This well-known horror actor has been in over 250 films since 1948. It’s an amazing feat, no matter who you are, but especially for an eighty-seven-year-old man suffering from RA.

This recently-knighted actor was literally born into royalty. His mother was a Countess and his father a Lieutenant-Colonial in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. His mother later married Ian Flemming’s uncle. He went on to join the Royal Air Force and served during World War II.
Lee’s first film appearance was in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet (1948). He went on to appear in many loved B movies, including Dracula (1958). Most people nowadays know him from his role as Saruman from LOTR and Count Dooku from the second and third episodes of Star Wars. He has also worked a lot with one of my favorite directors, Tim Burton. Lee had a small role in Sleepy Hollow, voiced the Pastor in Corpse Bride, and played Wonka’s father in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Lee is also the voice of the Jabberwock in the soon-to-be-released Alice in Wonderland. He has a few more films in the works right now as well… including taking part in a heavy metal musical about Charlemagne.
Unfortunately, while I can find a lot about this talented actor’s work, I can not find that much about his battle with RA. All I can find is from this comic book website:

Although Lee is known to suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis (which is one reason why his hands are rarely photographed today), at an age [87] when most performers would have already scaled back their work, Lee has virtually reinvigorated his career in the 21st century, posting featured roles in many top box office blockbusters including Sleepy Hollow (cameo), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring & The Two Towers & The Return of the King, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones & Revenge of the Sith, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, The Golden Compass, Alice in Wonderland and he provides voice work for the popular Cartoon Network animated series The Clone Wars (reprising his role as Count Dooku from the Star Wars films).

For more on his life, visit his personal website.

Aida Turturro

Posted on by Grayson

If you’ve ever watched the Sopranos, you know exactly who this fun actress is. She’s played several smaller parts in movies and turns up in interesting places – almost like an Easter egg.

Turturro was diagnosed with JRA at the age of twelve. When she was diagnosed, there was literally nothing in the way of treatment – heck there was still very little when I was diagnosed in 1995-ish. She just put up with the pain until she began to learn a lot about her disease and the treatment options open to her.
She has also taken a leading role in the education of others. She hosted a series of free seminars (part of the Joint Effort Against Rheumatoid Arthritis program) for those afflicted with arthritis to come and learn more about the disease and how to deal with life – exercise, diet, and treatments. This has also created a support network for those who were able to attend.
Turturro knows that life can always get worse for her and others with Rheumatoid Arthritis though:

“I’m lucky because my disease hasn’t progressed too far. Sometimes I have good days, sometimes I am in a lot of pain – but I never really let my RA stop me from doing the things I want to do. I know that there are a lot of people out there for whom the disease has progressed to a debilitating stage”.

In 2001, she was also diagnosed with type-2 diabetes. For more on her battle with RA, visit this story.

Matt Iseman

Posted on by Grayson

This physician-turned-comedian should be easy to recall for you reality tv nuts out there. He’s only one of the guys on Clean House.

He quit being a physician because he grew to love making people laugh. He doesn’t practice anymore but does frequently entertain other doctors with his personal stories. On Clean House, he is the go-to handyman. When he works on a project, it doesn’t seem as though there is anything wrong with him.
Oh, and according to his bio on the Clean House site, he really likes breakfast.
I will let this interview, featured in Headlines from the Arthritis Foundation, speak for Iseman:
Matt noticed symptoms of pain in his hands and feet during the summer of 2001. First he went to a podiatrist and received some medications for his feet. He then moved on to cortisone injections and continued taking aspirin. But when the symptoms didn’t go away, Matt finally had blood work done. The tests came back confirming that he had an aggressive case of RA.
“My pain was so bad I even tried acupuncture. The acupuncturist stuck 67 needles in me…I became my own voodoo doll!”
So what is Matt’s “Prescription for Laughs?” It’s the name of his stand-up routine that he performs at physician conferences. He also performed at the Arthritis Foundation National Development Conference in 2006, where he joked about his rheumatoid arthritis and had the room in stitches. “I like to use the jokes to give others with the disease hope and to thank those who work to create the cures that benefit me,” says Matt.
When he performs in the medical setting, Matt strives to make people laugh because he wants them “to understand that living with a chronic disease doesn’t mean life is over.” Matt also says that “I want to thank the doctors, nurses, scientists and the volunteers who have tirelessly worked to find these new treatments that have helped me out so much.”
Laughter is definitely one of the best forms of medicine. For more on Matt and what he’s up to lately, please visit his website.

Bob Mortimer

Posted on by Grayson

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know who he was before researching RA. He is a British comedian and actor who co-owns Pett Productions.

Mortimer’s mother also suffers from Rheumatoid Arthritis; he was diagnosed in 1989. The 50-year-old actor began to draw attention to the fact that arthritis is not an old person’s disease in 2002 when he began to open up more about the ailment to the public.

In the My Kind of Day column in the latest Radio Times, Mortimer says: “I have to be careful because I have rheumatoid arthritis all over my body. Steroids keep it under control – it’s treatable, but not curable, and it flares up with a major attack every now and then.


“The doctors can only give you steroids and statistics, such as there’s a one-in-ten chance you’ll end up in a wheelchair. (My mum is crippled with it.)”

For more from Mortimer, visit this short BBC interview. For more on arthritis and interesting Still’s Disease stats from the UK, visit this Gazette Live piece.

Physical Activity

Posted on by Grayson

I am really frustrated with my body right now.

I haven’t really done a lot physically since I came down with bronchitis right before Christmas. I’m really at the tail end of it right now, so it’s more like I just have a cold. The last big physical thing I did was go to the mall a few weeks ago.
Yesterday, while showering, I totally nicked the back of my left ankle in a couple of spots. It bled for a while and didn’t seem to want to stop. I had to tape some gauze on the back of my heel to stop the bleeding after a good ten minutes of applying pressure.
Last night I went to a basketball game with the boyfriend and his dad at my university. It was pretty cool. My school won and all in all it was a pretty great game. We got to sit court-side, which was pretty awesome. The seats weren’t the most comfortable, which was not a big deal. I was pretty worried about how close we were because I didn’t want to get in the players’ way, so I kind of twisted and bent my ankles to keep them off the court. Apparently, that was a really stupid idea.
The boyfriend and I went to Discovery World today, which was pretty awesome. If you haven’t gone, it’s definitely a fun thing to eat up a couple hours of your day. It does involve a fair amount of walking though… which shouldn’t have been a problem right?
Apparently, I’m wrong about that. I am super wiped out physically right now. We were only in DW for not even three hours and I was wearing sneakers. I started feeling the urge to limp pretty quickly, unfortunately, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from enjoying my time.
I feel fatigued, sick to my stomach, and I definitely have rash all over my face. My eyes have also been redder, which worries me since I have had a history of arthritis interacting with my eyes. It always bothers me when I feel like I can’t do normal people things without feeling completely and utterly wiped out.
It’s not just how I feel physically though. How do I go about turning down something fun because of how I think I might feel? I’m one of those people who likes to try new things all the time and go out and be active. Unfortunately, it seems as though my body doesn’t quite share my enthusiasm.
Since I fell down the stairs right before Christmas, my arthritis has gotten worse. I guess that, in the past, I haven’t really had to put very many limits on my physical activity. Unfortunately, until (or, the worse option – unless) the disease begins to be more dormant again, it seems like I’m going to have to learn to listen to my body’s warning signs just a little better. For now, I have an ankle to ice and keep up.

David Prowse

Posted on by Grayson

You may not know it, but you’ve seen this guy everywhere. From movie theaters to the small screen, he is one of the most important science fiction/fantasy actors of the last forty years. Yet, no one seems to know who he is.

Prowse is one of three actors who brought Darth Vader to life, the other two being of course James Earl Jones (voice) and Sebastian Shaw (unmasked Vader). He was also a bodybuilder and has trained actors Christopher Reeve (Superman) and Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride).
Prowse first suffered symptoms from arthritis at age 13, but they seemingly disappeared while he was bodybuilding. As of 1990, the symptoms returned. By 2001, both his left and right arms became paralyzed and he was diagnosed with septic arthritis. He blames this on a prescription he was given for NSAIDs that he ended up being allergic to. The reaction he had to this medication nearly killed him. He has lost four inches in height because of his arthritis and surgeries resulting from it. Both of his hips have been replaced – and worked on several more times – and one of his ankles is fused.
As if his life wasn’t hard enough, Prowse was diagnosed with prostate cancer in March of 2009. As of right now, he seems to be in remission. He works with many arthritis-related organizations and is the vice president of the Physically Handicapped and Able-bodied Association.
For more on David Prowse, see his website.

Tina Wesson

Posted on by Grayson

Tina was the winner of Survivor: The Australian Outback in 2001. She never had a vote against her and always tried her hardest to get things done. I was behind Colby Donaldson 100% during the show, but if I had known about her RA, I’d definitely have cheered her on more. As I recall, she never really complained… even though she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis in 1994.

She is now a spokesperson for the National Arthritis Foundation and leads a very active life. She has won the Tennessee racquetball championship twice, won a state doubles tennis championship, and came in third place in the state singles tennis championship. She has also run marathons in Ireland and Honolulu as a part of the NAF’s Joints in Motion program. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Tina about her battle with arthritis:

“I never wanted to be the poster child for arthritis, because my case is so mild,” she says in response to criticism from patients with severe cases who have posted angry messages on the foundation’s Web site. Yet, she’s speaking out to encourage undiagnosed sufferers to seek medical attention.

For more about her life and what she’s done since Survivor, take a journey over to her website.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Posted on by Grayson

Born in Cairo, Dorothy was a prominent British chemist. She advanced X-ray crystallography, protein crystallography, and confirmed the structures of cholesterol (1937), penicillin (1945) and vitamin B-12 (1954). In 1964, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for the latter of these accomplishments. Five years later, she discovered the structure of insulin. No doubt, this woman has touched the lives of thousands through the breakthroughs she made in chemistry.

As a 24-year-old, she complained of persistent pain in her hands. Her parents accompanied her to the doctor’s, where she was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. However, she never let the disease get in her way. This diagnosis came before she had even discovered the structure of cholesterol. The disease would later cause terrible deformities in both her hands and feet. The following excerpt from her obituary shows Dorothy’s determination in the face of disability:

A woman of indomitable spirit, she refused to let even severe arthritis call a halt to her scientific activity. Only last year, although wheelchair-bound, she flew to an international crystallography conference in Peking, to the astonishment of the other delegates who attended it.

Dorothy was also a big supporter of education and very involved with social justice. She traveled from place to place after her discoveries and preached the importance of insulin for those with diabetes.
For more on her life, see this article from the International Union of Crystallography.

Erik Lindbergh

Posted on by Grayson

He’s Charles Lindbergh’s grandson and he is very into aviation. He is a flight instructor and commercial pilot as well as being a spokesperson for several organizations like the Arthritis Foundation.

Erik, like Billy Bowden, was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of 21. For 15 years, the disease left him virtually crippled. He had to use a cane; otherwise, he was virtually unable to walk. After starting on Enbrel, Erik was able to gain back more of his mobility and has become very active as of late.
It is nice to see that Enbrel has helped him. Still, there are a lot of side effects and possible problems, so it is definitely something to talk about thoroughly with your doctor.
Erik’s personal website shares more about his life.

Billy Bowden

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Billy Bowden was a cricket player in New Zealand, who has now had to turn to umpiring because of his Rheumatoid Arthritis. He also had a cameo in Slumdog Millionaire.

As an umpire, he has had to alter certain signals usually given because of his arthritis. The picture above is an example of this. As a young 21-year-old, Bowden began to notice symptoms and subsequently be diagnosed with RA. This left some of his fingers bent.
Here are some interesting words from this courageous man:

 

Until four years ago, when he became an ambassador for Arthritis New Zealand, he didn’t talk about it publicly. “Was it because I was embarrassed, because I was a failure, my faith was tested… because it was why, why me?” he says. “I was healthy, only 21, my life was in front of me, and it was an injustice. I wasn’t happy.”

Eventually, his strong Baptist upbringing allowed him to reach a more positive conclusion. “Arthritis has been good for me, because I am sitting here now talking to you about something I would probably never have done if I had been healthy and played cricket. God has got a plan for everyone, and that was my plan… my arthritis has changed my life and turned me into someone I might not have been.”

__

Ignore the capering: he’s clearly a dedicated professional. Nowadays, for example, his ascetic lifestyle means he barely feels any pain from his arthritis. Bowden is virtually teetotal (except for a South African drink called amarula, he prefers a mixture of ginger ale and pineapple juice), he doesn’t smoke, he gets at least seven hours’ sleep, does 30 minutes of exercise a day and follows a diet planned by Jenny. “Some people think I’m on something, some kind of pill or tablet, but I just tell them that I’m high on life.”

 

How he can make it through the day without taking a lot of medicine is amazing. He has definitely learned to take this debilitating disease and turn it into something that doesn’t define him. It is easy to feel like he did as a 21-year-old (seeing as I am one) and think about how unfair it is that I have this disease that can, as we have seen, ruin lives. Sometimes the pain is almost too much to bear. I think that after researching how he has tried to continue living life normally, I have a new hero to look up to.
Here’s the interview I retrieved Billy’s words from.