I have been going to a physical therapist for my hands and wanted to pass along what I thought was an encouraging comment from the therapist yesterday. She said she has been a hand therapist for 22 years. Early in her career, rheumatoid arthritis patients made up about 10 to 20 % of her business primarily with deformity issues or recovery from hand surgery. Now, she said, RA patients are only about 1% of her business and the symptoms are a lot less severe, typically stiffness and some pain. She told me the difference has been the new RA medications. It's nice to hear such encouraging news from an unbiased source...thought it might be encouraging to you too.