Our Hands Can! Community Stories: September 2014 – Work



Work. We all do it, every day. It’s the work we do for pay, the work we do as volunteers, and the work we do because it’s a passion. The theme for the Show Us Your Hands! September Picture Project was Work and we got a wonderful variety of submissions on our Facebook page. Our Advisory Council selected a favourite, who will receive a signed copy of Danea Horn’s wonderful book Chronic Resilience: 10 Sanity-Saving Strategies for Women Coping with the Stress of Illness.


Here is a selection from the submissions for September. You can see the rest on the Show Us Your Hands! Facebook page.


Brenda added some very cute emoticons to her entry, illustrating her joy. Why is she so happy? “I am a music teacher, however I am currently home recovering from arthroplasty surgery (joint replacement in my hand), ecstatic that I'm able to play piano again.” We're really happy for you, Brenda!




Helen has also found a way to keep doing what she loves. She says “I have had RA for 32 years. My life is great don't let it rule your life, take control. My hobby is photography which I did give up for some time due to holding the heavy camera. So I brought a new lighter model. Love it!!” We’d love to see some of your photos, Helen!




April submitted the photo of her hands dressed up in snazzy fingerless gloves. “I work in IT. I spend all day, every day, with my hands on or near the keyboard. And when I get home, they are usually there too (since I also write). When my hands are not happy, it makes for a long day some days.” We know exactly what you mean, April.




The winner for September is Robin. Her photo told of the strength and determination it takes to live with inflammatory arthritis. She said “I'm working on my future. I move and push myself with exercise and weight lifting. I'm trying to ensure my future self is well and happy in life I have planned. Pain is pain and I can have it on the couch or making forward progress. I love my work.”


Well said, Robin. Congratulations on being our September winner!




Contact us at suyh14ATgmailDOTcom and we'll arrange for the book to come your way.

Do you want to be part of the Picture Project this month? Take a photo of your hands doing something related to the change in seasons, then post it on the Show Us Your Hands! Facebook page or Twitter and tag your post with @showusyourhands. Submit as many photos as you’d like. 

The October prize is a signed copy of Daniel P. Malito’s So Young: A Life Lived With Rheumatoid Arthritis. Thank you so much for supporting the Picture Project, Dan!

We want to remind you that by submitting a photo, you give Show Us Your Hands! permission to use the photo and your name in our community programs, such as the monthly Our Hands Can! Community Stories.

To see the other entries in our Picture Project, hop on over to the Show Us Your Hands! Facebook page. We look forward to seeing your hands!
  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weight Gain and Biologics: The Battle of the Pudge

Image
The Seated View has moved .  I am still bringing you the information and support you need to live a better life with RA and chronic illness, just on another site. I'd love for you to visit my new website ! - Lene If you want to leave a comment or question about weight gain, RA, and Biologics and are looking for answers or feedback, please jump to this post on my new site . It has the capability for direct replies, this site does not. You can also reach me at leneATyourlifewithraDOTcom. - Thanks, Lene I’ve known from the beginning that Biologics can affect your weight. When I was on Enbrel, I couldn’t keep weight on, and looked anorexic despite eating like a horse. When I switched to Humira, I started gaining weight. I, who had never before spent much time past a size 6, became a 10. After years of being   literally skin and bones, it suited me just fine.  And then the gaining continued, until finally settling around a weight that requires a 16 pant. Never having been thi
Read more

Real RA: It's Not Just About the Jar

    The drug commercials like to show couples walking on the beach with a dog (it's always a beach with a dog), but real RA is not like that. The image of remission is a return to sparkling health with no lasting effects, but real RA is not like that. This is the first in new series of posts about the ways RA affects your life, the unvarnished version.   Last week, Kelly over at RA Warrior tweeted a link to a post about the silly things people with RA say . It’s a brilliant list of the overly optimistic things that come out of our mouths, such as committing to being somewhere early in the day (impossible because it takes a while to get going when you have RA) or the "me do it" ridiculousness that inevitably brings about a flare in symptoms. Opening jars - or rather, the inability to do so - is often mentioned as the ultimate example in frustration, smacking into your limits and plain humiliation. For Kelly, it's not a jar, it's a set of heavy blinds.
Read more

Farber’s Disease: Could Your Child’s Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis Be Misdiagnosed?

Image
Joint inflammation or contractures. Nodules (small lumps under the skin or in other tissues). A weakened or hoarse voice. Children with these symptoms may have been diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) or other types of juvenile arthritis . But do they actually have JIA or do they have Farber’s disease? An equine digression When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras. This is an adage in the medical world that encourages doctors to not wander off exploring rare and esoteric reasons for a patient’s symptoms. Because most of the time, that hoof beat of a rash likely isn’t the plague, the joint pain more likely a type of arthritis than the bends (especially if the person has never scuba dived) and you get the picture. But once in a while, it actually is a zebra. And even if it’s first identified as a horse, eventually, the stripes come through. It took five years of my parents running around to different doctors before one finally recognized that I had
Read more