another family member with RA | Arthritis Information

 

Okay, some of you may remember that after almost THREE years of my daughter having JRA, out the blue my dad told me my grandfather had RA.

Talked to an aunt last night (going on FOUR years now) who said another aunt (uncle's wife, not a blood relative, but still....) has had RA for years.

Doesn't anybody think it would have been nice to share some of this with us before now????  I mean, the RA aunt called when she started selling Mary Kay.....I would have loved to talk about some of her experiences so far.

According to the aunt I talked with, this has been the RA aunt's experience:

Dx'd in her forties.  Never felt good.

Breast cancer in her fifties.   After chemo for that, felt the best she had ever felt.  The best years she can remember.

Lasted five years, now RA is back and she feels bad again.  My aunt does not know anything about her current meds.
sometimes family members just assume that you knew about the other family or they think they told you and they didn'tIf you really want to find out.. you have to ask specifically.. that's what i've had to do..though almost everyone of the previous generation except Dad have passed.. he remembers alot..

I knew I had some relatives with RA or other autoimmune issues, but not as many as I had ... I have both paternal and maternal great-grandmothers with RA, two paternal great aunts with RA, my paternal grandmother had lupus, my  mother has fibro, one of her sisters has fibro, two others have chronic fatigue, and basically every woman and many of the men on my mother's side of the family has severe asthma and allergies (in some cases, to a life threatening level). There's also a family history on that side of autism/sensory integration/etc. made worse by chemical sensitivies and assorted other interesting and probably-immune-related problems. Same here nobody ever told me anything. Learned the hard way or when a specific person had it effect them.
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