What is it like to live with arthritis in your twenties – and a pandemic

Day 213 of the shield.

The shelter will be installed and will be activated immediately.

It’s hard to believe that more than half a year has passed since I actually came into contact with humans in public. It is forbidden to make several one-on-one contacts with a nurse, family member, or strange friend from a distance of 6 feet (2 meters). In the open air.

During the first few days of the pandemic, they said these words when authorities were listing all vulnerable groups: people with underlying illness, the elderly, people taking immunosuppressive drugs. Must enter into self-isolation. Diabetics, cancer survivors, lung and heart disease patients, and I – a 25-year-old young adult look healthy in every possible way, but an invisible illness that is rarely heard. I am fighting with.

Arthritis is the name of my burden and is an incurable disease that affects an estimated 350 million people worldwide. Just in Turkey, recent data show that 1 in 200 people is diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This is one of the 100 subtypes of illness, but the actual number is expected to be much higher given potential diagnoses and misdiagnosis.

So what is arthritis?

Arthritis causes chronic pain in your body, more specifically your joints, your bones and inevitably your soul, as swelling of the joints suppresses your movements and crushes your hopes. It can best be characterized as a gnawing pain.

It is an inflammatory condition, an autoimmune disease, in which your own body actually turns on itself and begins to attack the synovium that lines your joints, which helps you move easily. In essence, what it misidentified as a threat is your immune system, which attacks healthy tissues.

If not treated early or early, it can cause joint deformity, permanent damage to bones and other organs, and can lead to damage. The most common joints affected are the hand, foot, knee and spine joints.

Tenderness in the joints and surrounding fever and swelling, weakness, muscle wasting, malaise, and mental fog are common symptoms.

The disease can be caused by the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene, especially HLA-DRB1, but doctors also suspect that it is due to a serious infection, or long-term or sudden stress. The actual clear trigger remains unknown.

Like all invisible illnesses, people have many misconceptions about it. Here are the four most common I’ve personally encountered on World Arthritis Day.

It is an old man’s illness.

The most common misconception people have, which I shared with an embarrassing and ironic twist, is that arthritis is a reserved condition for the elderly. You will be amazed at the number of young people fighting the disease in rheumatism and physiotherapy wards. If people knew I wasn’t joking when I said to the body of a woman in her twenties that she felt like an 80-year-old grandma.

According to statistics, the majority of cases are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, and women are three times more likely to be diagnosed.

It’s just a little pain and stiffness.

Arthritis is often neglected, but it can last a serious life, although it is trivial as “a little pain” and can be mistakenly compared to everyday headaches and strange knee pain in some people. It is sick and can lose the ability to do the simplest things, like opening a bottle, walking, or hugging.

Many patients, including myself, simply describe it as having a daily pain baseline until they finally forget to even live a painless day.

Chronic inflammation in the body can also prevent the patient from moving joints, which weakens the attached muscles daily. (Therefore, it is important to travel every day, even for 30 minutes, which is a talking experience.)

Playing a knuckle causes arthritis.

If this myth was true, my grandfather, who lived until the age of 94, would have been completely stuck in the last year due to swelling and pain, but he walked more than 10 miles a day until he was 90. On the other hand, I haven’t played a knuckle for a day in my life and I see where I am.

Breaking joints or flipping knuckles does no harm and at best irritates others. Some studies have confirmed that this activity is neither harmful nor beneficial, and if the cracks are painful, they may be suffering from abnormalities such as ligament damage or cartilage loosening.

But you don’t look sick.

Hearing this from friends and family is a very familiar event.

The presence of the disease is barely visible to the naked eye, as many sick people have no visible malformations and are not on crutches or wheelchairs.

After all, you’ll see handstands and cartwheels on good days like no tomorrow, but on bad days I wonder if I’m doing a spectacular play when I can’t get out. Would press the button on my bed or on my jacket. However, as the disease progresses or as it ages, its effects begin to become more apparent.

The beauty of this disease (!) Is also in its unpredictability. We don’t know when or how long flare-ups will occur, but modern medicine helps control symptoms and prevent further damage.