RA feels like being cut off by a cab driver after you’ve waited in a gridlock for hours.

RA feels like that annoying piece of meat stuck in your teeth for hours that bleeds when you use a toothpick.

RA feels like ”feeling” the burn from exercising all day. Every day. Forever…

RA feels like eating gluten when you have a severe gluten allergy.

RA feels like saving for that luxury vacation, getting there and discovering the resort has bedbugs.

RA feels like you’ve found the love of your life than discovering they’re in love with your sibling.

RA feels like that lost item in the lost and found but no one ever comes to claim it.

RA feels like you’ve aged overnight. Once a week for the rest of your life.

RA feels like someone has trapped you in a cold dark room where you can hear others but no one comes to look for you or hears you calling for help.

RA feels like you are participating in a triathlon with multiple obstacle courses that never end, they just change.

I know what your thinking, RA is hell and it is. It truly is. Recently I described the feeling of RA as being tortured.

See… you get to the end of a flare, or another health complication. You keep pushing yourself to get thru it. ” This too shall pass”… Is what you keep repeating to yourself. You get caught up in the “light at the end of the tunnel” theory however you discover at the end of this tunnel another issue waiting for you. A new area of inflammation or pain, heart disease or heartburn, skin issues, hormone or fertility issues.

Our immune systems are intelligent and will find ways to “outsmart” the medications used to treat the damage it is doing.

For instance, my biologic infusions are slowing down the progression of the disease, treating the inflammation and the pain but now Ms. RA is attacking my tendons causing tendonitis in my ankles and wrists. It’s never-ending. My team of doctors get bigger and bigger.

Ms. RA is like that friend, that’s not really your friend. She’s a friend of your friend that annoys the shit out of you but you grin and bear it…for your friend and for others.

That’s what we Chronic illness suffers due. We grin and bear it. We are truly invisible warriors. We the Invisible heroes. We hurt badly in our minds, in our bodies and in our spirits but we fight… Every. Single. Day.

We fight for our families. We fight for our friends. We fight to work and provide. We fight to try and enjoy life. AND… all these reasons are genuine but the true strength lies in fighting for ourselves.

RA may feel like shit, might be hell but a small glimpse of happiness can feel like heaven.

Keep fighting. You’re worth it…