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Tina's Tips

Arthritis can affect your ability to do even the simplest of tasks. I've heard some people say, "Accept your limitations." I'm not sure accepting them is the way to go. I prefer to challenge those limitations, work around them, finding alternate ways of achieving the same goal. Every week I'll share some tips I've found to work around those annoying limitations and I hope all of you will send in your tips too. We may not be the next Martha Stewart, but sometimes the simplest things can help so much.

A tip for the girls from Dorothy:
A little tip for the hand appearance...I, too, once had pretty hands, so when they got all lumpy and deformed I began using what I call "THE DISTRACTION EFFECT". I paid more attention to my hairstyle, and started a new makeup effort. Put on individual false eyelashes (just a few) available at wallyworld. Used some shadow and light highlighter trying to achieve an alert, sparkly effect. more mascara, etc. Then I put on my best smile and faced the world. It really helped and the comments from "well-meaning" friends almost quit referring to my hands and illness.

And from Tina:

Great tip Dorothy, looking your best always makes you feel better! Even for those of you that have trouble putting on makeup or styling your hair, a SMILE can make a world of difference. You look healthier, brighter with a smile on your face. If you don't particularly feel like smiling, try it anyway. Someone will smile back and you'll feel better about yourself.

This week's Featured Discussion is Parenting A Child Who Has Arthritis. Check it out at /feature/parents 

Advice for Better Living
Anyone on Arava? Would you like to share your experience? We'd appreciate it!
/living/advice/   

Expert Advice:
I am very frustrated. I have been having joint pain and morning stiffness for the last 2 years. I am always exhausted. I was originally diagnosed with bilateral Plantar fasicitis and I have had bilateral carpal tunnel since the birth of my son 4 years ago. I have pain in both knees , hips, and my low back as well. I am on mobic which is the sixth try of an NSAID. I am also on Sulfasalazine, and Flexiril. All of my labs have come back negative. I had a bone scan 2 weeks ago and I had hot spots on both ankles and feet. My Rheumatologist said it was from the Plantar Fascitis. I have been told possible diagnosis multiple times sero-negative RA, lupus, Fibromyligia etc. The muscles in my legs and low back feel like baseballs knotted up in the morning and sometimes all day. I have great difficulty walking at times and both of my feet are proned. My rheumatologist also prescribed Ultram for the pain and discussed putting me on muscle relaxers during the day. Should I try to get another opinion from a rheumatologist? I am concerned that I possibly have RA because the morning stiffness and pain have been going on for almost two years. I have had to walk with a walker at times it has been so bad. My legs just don't seem to want to work right. The more activity I do the worse it gets. Rest is the only thing that seems to help even with the medications I am on. Thanks 
See our Expert answers to this and more questions at /medical/advice/ 

Question of the Week
Tell us how you would respond to this statement:
"You're too young to have arthritis." 
/community/question/  

Questions From Friends & Family
This week's question is a tough one:
My friend has RA and she's overweight. I understand that her weight did not cause her problems, but I know losing weight can only help her. How can I help her loose weight without making her mad? Hmm! Can we help her out?
/living/family/questions/  

Members Write
Ron, from the depths of his blue funk writes, Pieces of Me and Tina counters with Pieces of You. Dee Tee tells us about her best friend, what a lucky couple they are to have such love!
/community/write/  

Member Stories
Lisa shares her story of life with RA. Have you sent yours in yet?
/community/stories/ 

To see all of our latest additions see: /updates.html  Check it every morning and you won't miss a thing.

What's Coming? 

Our next Featured Discussion will be Travel & Arthritis. Traveling when you have arthritis can be difficult, but nothing you can't handle with a little planning and some help from your friends. Please fill out our survey. 
/feature/survey.html  

Next week on JRA World, we will be featuring JRA, if you have JRA please fill out the survey. http://jraworld.arthritisinsight.com/feature/survey.html  

Contest!!
We'll have a new contest in September with a great prize! We're calling this one "Our Shining Light". Tell us about someone who doesn't let arthritis get him/her down. We're not taking about climbing mountains or running marathons (but they are welcome to participate too), just your average folks who get on with life and do incredible, caring things. You can be an active, inspiring person even if you are bed bound! 

You can nominate your mother, your child, your neighbor, your best friend, your online support pal, yourself, anyone but your dog! Look for details on Friday.

What do you want to see on Arthritis Insight or in the Newsletter? Let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate!

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Arthritis Insight Chat /community/chat/

We had a great chat with our newest advisor, Dr. Thomas Lehman on Monday. Dr. Lehman patiently answered all of our questions about JRA. /community/chat/august282000.html 

On Monday September 4th, please join us at 9:30 pm Easter time for an open forum on Travel & Arthritis. 
*NEW CHAT!

Wednesday nights at 10pm Eastern time is Parent's Support Chat in the JRA World chatroom for those of us with children that have arthritis with JRAWhostDonna. Thanks Donna!

The complete chat schedule can be found at /community/chat/schedule.html  
We're still looking for a few good chat hosts! If you're interested in volunteering an hour a week, please let us know. We currently need a Thursday night host, a teen with arthritis to host a teen support chat and any other topic or time you'd like to host.

We've had many new faces in the chatroom lately, and a lot of great friendships being formed!

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Cooking With Char!

Hello again! I heard from a reader after last weeks column, who tried the Lemonade Pie, but substituted frozen Pina Coloda mix for the lemonade. Well, I tried it, and it was great! He tried it with frozen Margarita mix also. Thanks for being a guinea pig for me Dale! Hope you keep trying my recipes and experimenting on your own.

Time is always precious, especially for single parent families or where Mom and Dad both have to work outside of the home, to make ends meet. And who wants to spend time cooking when you get home? So anything you can make in the crock pot, or skillet or one pan, are definitely the way to go. So send in your favorites!!! In the meantime, try these.
Here is a recipe my sister-in-law says is an old Girl Scout Recipe.

Campfire Stew
Brown a package of ground meat
and 1 med. onion chopped
Drain
To pan-add 2 cans of vegetable soup (vegetarian veg, or veg. beef or whatever you have on hand)
add 1 can tomato soup
and 1 1/2 cans of water
Serve with crusty bread or crackers.
It doesn't get much easier than that!

Now how about your basic mac and cheese in a box? Just brown ground meat and onion, drain and add to your mac and cheese (prepared to package directions). Serve with a veggie or salad. Some fruit for dessert and it's a meal!

And there is really quick Tuna and Noodles. Boil noodles, drain, stir in a can of tuna undrained, 1 can of cream of mushroom soup. I usually also add frozen peas to this or drained canned peas. 

I am sure we all have combinations and short cuts for those meal in a hurry nights. Why dont you take a minute or two and send them to me to share with everyone?

Also don't forget I am still waiting for holiday recipes!! And decorating ideas too! So far NOBODY is sending anything. Come on folks! I can't do this without you!!!

If you have comments or suggestions about this column, please send them to me at Char@arthritisinsight.com. 

From Donna:
October Happening In Ohio
When...October 12-15 
Place...Wooster, Ohio
Looks like we have quite a crowd going already! Over 30 people so far! If you can make it, you won't regret the experience of meeting and making new friends with other people with arthritis.
The rooms are filling fast! If you are planning on going and have not made your reservations you need to do so quickly. All the information is posted at http://fadedjeans.com/ohio 

A New Baby!
Amy and her husband Rich are leaving for China today to pick up their new baby girl! We wish them a safe trip and send our congratulations on their new family!! 

Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Gail P. and Belinda! Check out all the birthdays at /community/birthday/ and make sure to send them an arthritis-friendly e-card: /cgi-bin/postcards/postcard.pl  


Whenever possible we will try get to our sponsors to agree to discounts and the like for our members. Here are our current special offers:

KC Comfort Zone (www.kccomfortzone.com )
KC Comfort Zone offers Innovative Products for Healthy Living. Safe, instant, portable, reuseable hot and cold Therapy packs as well as many other products for your comfort. KC Comfortzone will give Arthritis Insight members free shipping on ALL orders! And they'll donate 10% of your order total to the Arthritis Foundation. Just put the (arthritis) next to your name on the order form

KAS Enterprises (http://www.kasenterprises.com/theraband.html?ai) has graciously offered to help us out in our quest for fitness. They have put together a special package of Thera-Bands? and accessories. All for $19.99 with free shipping and a free instruction manual. If you mention Arthritis Insight you'll get double Frequent Buyer Bonus Points so you can earn free products!

Sore No More gel (http://www.sorenomore.com) will send a free sample of the pain relieving gel to any Arthritis Insight Community Member who emails them at dma@glogerm.com. 

Therabath Paraffin Therapy Bath is offering $30 off of their regular price of the Therabath unit. Visit http://www.wrmed.com/special_offer.htm  for more info.

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Contribute
Have you written something you think our subscribers would like to read? Send it to Tina@arthritisinsight.com and maybe we'll use it in our newsletter.

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A Closing Thought

LOVE ACCORDING TO KIDS (I think we can learn a lot about love from these kids!)

Since a very long time ago, people have searched for the meaning of love. But even the great philosophers, with their profound definitions, could not fully touch its true essence. In a survey of 4-8 year olds, kids share their views on love. But what do little kids know about love? Read on and realize their young and innocent minds, kids already have a simple but deep grasp of that four-letter word.

Love is that first feeling you feel before all the bad stuff gets in the way. When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.

When someone loves you, the way she says your name is different. You know that your name is safe in her mouth.
If life is 'A,' love is the whole alphabet.

Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.

Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give you any of theirs.

Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.

Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.

Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My mommy and daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss but they look happy and sometimes they dance in the kitchen while kissing.

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents for a minute and look around.

If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who hates you.

Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.

During my piano recital, I was on a stage and scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.

My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.

Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.

Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.

If you want somebody to love you, then just be yourself. Some people try to act like somebody else, somebody the boy likes better. I think the boy isn't being very good if he does this to you and you should just find a nicer boy.

Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.

When you're born and see your mommy for the first time. That's love.

Love goes on even when you stop breathing and you pick up where you left off when you reach heaven.

My enemies taught me how to love.

I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.

You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.

You have to fall in love before you get married. Then when you're married, you just sit around and read books together.

I let my big sister pick on me because my mom says she only picks on me because she loves me. So I pick on my baby sister because I love her.

Love cards, like Valentine's cards, say stuff on them that we'd like to say ourselves, but we wouldn't be caught dead saying.

When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.

Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.

Love makes you sweat a lot.

You never have to be lonely. There's always somebody to love, even if it's just a squirrel or a kitten.

You can break love, but it won't die.

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Arthritis Insight Newsletter Copyright 2000