Not all smiles and laughter

A couple of people have commented recently on our photo site..."Donna always seems to be smiling!" Well, I don't normally point the camera at Donna when she is in pain or upset, so I can understand how someone looking at her photos could mistakenly assume she's always smiling and happy. Unfortunately, it's far from the truth. Here is a photo I took yesterday of Donna's elbow. It's swollen with rheumatoid arthritis. It's been acting up again for the first time in a long while, and she's been having to get in bed by 6:00 or 6:30PM because, as she tells me, "My whole body hurts!". Rheumatoid arthritis is a horrible disease. Unlike osteoarthritis it can affect whole organ systems, not just the joints. We had it well under control with a strict non-dairy diet, but her case manager and her family talked her into going back to her old way of eating, and I fear it may come back in full force one day. I certainly hope I'm wrong.