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So, Friday the GP told me I did have rheumatoid arthritis after all … after a practice nurse told me over the phone my blood test had been negative for the rheumatoid factor (RhF) antibody. In fact I have a high RhF measure. My appointment with a consultant rheumatologist should be dropping through the letterbox within the next two weeks then it’ll be a long decline into severe pain, disability, joint deformity and early death.

If I’m unlucky.

If I’m lucky, my RA will be manageable, though not curable, and I will have, as they say, many years of active life ahead of me; which is an improvement, of course, on my previous expectations. Of course, if I was even luckier i wouldn’t have RA at all. 1% of the population, with a 3:1 female to male ratio and I manage to get it?

I just noticed a paper on PubMed suggesting a link between Toxoplasma Gondii and RA so maybe I can blame the cats.

Rheumatoid Arthritis: let’s blame the cat

I’m setting up a new blog to indulge my self-pity, at Rheumatoidia.

Posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm in Science and Technology | rss feed for comments| Leave a response, or trackback