maunderings of a creaking old buffer

maunderings of a creaking old buffer

The BBC bit about arthritis is absolutely right (see creaking above). Arthritis is not simply a disease of the old - not least, it is at least 100 separate, widely differing conditions, including gout, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis - few of which are age-related. Arthritis simply means inflammation (almost invariably painful) of one or more joints - that inflammation can happen for many different reasons. In the case of osteo-arthritis the inflammation relates to "wear and tear", and so becomes more likely as we age. In most cases, however, arthritis has nothing to do with ageing - but it certainly leaves you feeling old - you take on the shuffling, painful gait of many older people, your hands can't grip - or caress: one day you feel pretty good - much as you were before this unwelcome alien invaded your life, and the next, virtually unable to move. Shagged out, without the shag. Sick as a dog, without the enjoyable excess. And even the most caring of friends and loved ones (including oneself) make disabling assumptions, and damning judgments.
Inflammatory arthritis (of which rheumatoid arthritis is but one form) seems to encourage those damning judgments - you have good days and bad days - the common judgment says the good days are the norm, and the bad days are simply those when we are not coping well, making a fuss, putting on the agony, swinging the lead. The truth is that the good days are those when a shitty disease decides to give you a little peace, the bad days are those when it doesn't.