Rheumatoid Arthritis Is Not "Just" Arthritis

My Mother has two kinds of arthritis- osteo and rheumatoid. She has osteoarthritis in one of her knees and in her back and rheumatoid in her left knee and foot. She can't get a shoe on at times and has trouble walking. She takes methotrexate, which seems to help...when she takes it. Let's just say she a weeee bit stubborn.

She also has a weak bladder and is supposed to catherize herself three times a day. Woo wee! That sounds like a hoot, don't it?  Anyway...with her two kinds of arthur she has trouble doing that and she recently had a conversation with her urologist about the catherizing.

Dr. I.P: Freely: "Have you been catherizing yourself?"
Mom: "No, my back hurts plus I  have arthritis. I have trouble doing it."
"Well, we all get arthritis as we age, it's normal."
So this is where my big mouth butted in and I said, "She has rheumatoid arthritis. I think it's a bit different from the other."

Yes I do talk back to doctors at times. They just looove me.

Now I know he's a pee doctor but you'd think he would know the difference between osteo and rheumatoid. Yes osteoarthritis hurts and makes it hard to move. I know because I have it- but rheumatoid arthritis can put people in wheelchairs. I wish doctors would think before they speak at times. Of course I need to take my own advice about thinking before speaking but anyway...

Here are some links about both kinds from the arthritis foundation:

http://www.arthritis.org/osteoarthritis.php

http://www.arthritis.org/rheumatoid-arthritis.php


 Also here's a handy dandy video on the differences between the two nefarious diseases.(Haha, I said nefarious. I sound like Adam West- era Batman.)