How can I help out my girlfriend with rheumatoid arthritis?
Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at
11:46 pm
My girlfriend has been suffering with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis for most of her life and it just tears me apart to see her in so much pain. She takes medication for it but still never feels great. I feel so useless not being able to help her with the pain, I've asked her if I can help but she always says "its fine". Are there any ways I can really help her??
Thanks in advance.
By the way, we're both fifteen, if it helps at all.
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Tagged with: arthritis • girlfriend • juvenile rheumatoid arthritis • medication • Rheumatoid arthritis • thanks in advance
Filed under: Arthritis Help
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There are several things that you and your girlfriend can be doing to help deal with arthritis pain.
For those with arthritis, preforming regular low impact exercises, such as walking or certain water sports, is very important. Regular safe exercise will help strengthen muscles, as well as improve flexibility and stamina. Often, arthritis pain comes from being inactive for too long, so this is also helped by exercise.
Eating healthily is also important, which means not loading up on junk foods and making an effort to get the proper vitamins and nutrients, especially Vitamin D.
Both exercise and diet can be very effective at helping to deal with arthritis pain, so as her boyfriend, you can help keep her motivated and push her to keep working.
Another thing you can do is help her to learn to live with her arthritis. Learning to live with arthritis is important, because there is no cure for the diseases and there are going to be some things that are more difficult to do.
You can start by making a list of things that your girlfriend has difficulty doing because of her arthritis or that cause her arthritis pain. Then, try to find ways of making these tasks easier.
As an example, many people have difficulty cooking, so finding more efficient ways of cooking, is often one of the biggest problems faced by those with arthritis. Of course, everyone is different, so the ways it affects her life will vary.
Peter, please contact me, I need some additional information and I think I will be able to give you some help. I have had some success with arthritis in the past.
I have to advise against using Douglas B’s help…his answer to everything is "it’s a pinched muscle" and he’ll take you through some cockamamie technique that he invented, but gives the same technique to every other person. He’s not a health care professional. I suspect he has no idea about the true nature of JRA as opposed to regular "arthritis"….
What you can do for your girlfriend is to understand that this is a medical disorder that has an auto-immune component. You should be supportive that she takes her medication on time, that she respects her pain level during an JRA exaccerbation (a flare up) and not try to "push through the pain." Help keep her healthy by limiting exposure to germs…especially when on Methotrexate which she is even more susceptible to infection.
…most of all…be understanding.
I’m 16 with JA in my spine (Ankylosing Spondylitis) and I love it when my boyfriend massages my neck, where the pain is the strongest. It only temporarily relieves pain, but I really appreciate it!
Also, if she’s having a "bad" day with her JRA, just be sweet to her. Stay in and watch a movie rather than going out.
Good luck!
I have had RA since I was 11 so I understand the pain(I am 24 now)-and it tears my husband up that there isnt much he can do to take it away-but the simple things like helping me get dressed or tying my shoes or combing my hair-that helps me alot when I am in a lot of pain-doing the heavy lifting and helping me clean the house-massaging the painful areas helps me alot-it relieves some of the pain and my husband applies heat compresses to my pain as well-but keeping positive attitudes helps ya deal alot better with the pain and him keeping a smile on his face and encouraging words helps me
I dont know what kind of meds she takes but I find that the OTC Osteoflex for joints helps me move a little better cause it helps your joints out. And i also began taking the drug Humira and I have had a great improvement on that drug-
But you sound like a great guy and i give ya points on wanting to help her out-cause some men don’t have such a giving attitude and sometimes dont want nothing to do with ya-so stay awesome
get help through wikipedia
All you can really do is be there for her and show her that you care. It’s really hard to see people in go through stuff like that. I have been dealing with arthritis since I was 9 (I’m 14 now) and that’s how you would be able to help me.