I am a very lucky woman.

A little over four months ago, RA Guy, Cathy and I decided we wanted to work together, leapfrogging off of RA Guy’s wonderful community collage. What exactly we were going to do was still up in the air. By the time we settled into an official structure, discussed options for our next project and decided what that project was going to be, it was February.

And now, a mere three months later, we have released Our Hands Can!, a photo book featuring stories and images of very capable hands that also happen to have a form of inflammatory arthritis.

Those two paragraphs don’t begin to capture the magic of this project.

Read More: http://theseatedview.blogspot.com/2012/05/behind-scenes.html

(May 7, 2012) – Show Us Your Hands! is pleased to announce the release of its Our Hands Can! photo book, the latest in a series of successful initiatives aimed at uniting the community of individuals who are living with inflammatory arthritis and increasing the public’s awareness of this group of autoimmune diseases. This photo book contains the inspiring photographs and moving stories of dozens of people of all ages from around the world who live with different types of inflammatory arthritis and is being released today in celebration of Arthritis Awareness Month.

May is National Arthritis Awareness Month in the United States. Its goal is to bring attention to the issues and realities faced by people who live with one of the more than 100 different types of arthritis. More than 46 million people live with arthritis in the US, including 300,000 children. It is the most common cause of disability.

The Our Hands Can! photo book is available for purchase at Blurb in both hardcover format and softcover format. “Being part of this has made me feel proud of who I am with rheumatoid arthritis and all for the first time in a long time,” says Samantha Legere, who is profiled in the photo book. Founding director Lene Andersen adds, “Our Hands Can! is a tangible affirmation that all of us who live with inflammatory arthritis find a way to live meaningful, productive and joyful lives. Our hands may hurt and bear the visible signs of our disease, but it doesn’t stop us!” All funds raised from the sale of these photo books go to Show Us Your Hands!, an international awareness movement which serves to unite and inspire the inflammatory arthritis community.

The Show Us Your Hands! inflammatory arthritis community collage project debuted in December 2011. People of all ages from around the world are represented in this community project and new photos continue to be added to on a regular basis. The community collage project serves not only as a symbol of the wonderfully supportive inflammatory arthritis community that continues to grow and connect online, but also acts as a reminder that people who live with these diseases should be proud of, and not ashamed of, their inflammatory arthritis hands. By April 2011, the Show Us Your Hands! inflammatory arthritis community collage project had grown to include more than 1,000 hands.

Autoimmune diseases occur when a body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. In the case of inflammatory arthritis, a person’s joints are frequently attacked, resulting in chronic pain and debilitating inflammation. The most common inflammatory arthritis diseases are Ankylosing Spondylitis, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Psoriatic Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Still’s Disease and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Show Us Your Hands! is an international awareness movement which serves to unite and inspire the inflammatory arthritis community. For more information, please visit www.showusyourhands.org. Show Us Your Hands! can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Our Hands Can! by Show Us Your Hands!

The Juicy Joint for Rheumatoid Arthritis
My name is Jill Tague and at thirteen months old, I was diagnosed with Juvenile Pauciarticular Rheumatoid Arthritis. RA is a chronic disease. It does not go away and affects every single aspect of your life. I am about to turn twenty-one and for the first time in my entire life, I am coming to terms with this disease’s longevity. It is forever a part of me, as it plays a major role in your life and all that you do. May this online journal help you gain further understanding of this disease and greater peace within.
Read More: http://thejuicyjoint.com/

My Journey Through Reactive Arthritis
I discovered that I had Reactive Arthritis when I was 19 years old and living in Brazil. It hit me as a result of food poisoning. I had no idea what was happening to me, I thought I had some sort of crazy tropical disease and I was freaked out. This Web site is my story about the journey through this realitively unknown disease and what I have done to deal with it’s symptoms and everything else it has thrown at me.
Read More: http://www.bnlsport.com/blog/

The Adventures of a Snowball in Hell
I’m a middle-aged working wife and mother with rheumatoid arthritis. Wait! Am I middle-aged? At 48, I’m probably past the middle. I’d be surprised I make 96, so I guess I’m…OLD. Hmmm…let’s say post-middle-aged. Yes, that sounds slightly more dignified.
Read More: http://snowballsadventures.blogspot.com/

A Day With Me & Arthritis
So what started as a pain in my finger suddenly started attacking me everywhere.
From my finger pain it went to swelling of hands, then pain in wrists, so bad i felt like i wanted to chop my hands off, i found i was constantly looking grumpy with my arms folded holding my hands tight under each armpit, why??? i don’t know just felt like it was doing some good, bizzare!!! I have learnt that there are a lot of bizzare things that happen with arthritis, i am sure these will be revealed along the way…
Read More: http://traluvie-adaywithme.blogspot.com/

My Search for Health
I decided to start a blog describing my journey from a completely healthy person to a chronically sick person trying to make it back to being a healthy person again. The journey has been long, but infinitely educational. It has strengthened me in ways that I never thought possible.
Read More: http://www.mysearchforhealth.blogspot.com/

More resources and blogs: www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/links/

(May 1, 2012) – Show Us Your Hands! is pleased to announce the release of its 1,000 Hands Poster Project, the latest in a series of successful initiatives aimed at uniting the community of individuals who are living with inflammatory arthritis and increasing the public’s awareness of this group of autoimmune diseases. This poster proudly displays the first one thousand hands which were submitted to the community collage project and is being released today in celebration of Arthritis Awareness Month.

May is National Arthritis Awareness Month in the United States. Its goal is to bring attention to the issues and realities faced by people who live with one of the more than 100 different types of arthritis. More than 46 million people live with arthritis in the US, including 300,000 children. It is the most common cause of disability.

The 1,000 Hands Poster is available for purchase at Zazzle. “This poster is powerful! It represents how individual we each are with inflammatory disease while also showing how strong we are together as a community,” says founding director Cathy Kramer. All funds raised from the sale of these posters go to Show Us Your Hands! An international awareness movement which serves to unite and inspire the inflammatory arthritis community.

The Show Us Your Hands! inflammatory arthritis community collage project debuted in December 2011. People of all ages from around the world are represented in this community project and new photos continue to be added to on a regular basis. The community collage project serves not only as a symbol of the wonderfully supportive inflammatory arthritis community that continues to grow and connect online, but also acts as a reminder that people who live with these diseases should be proud of, and not ashamed of, their inflammatory arthritis hands. By April 2011, the Show Us Your Hands! inflammatory arthritis community collage project had grown to include more than 1,000 hands.

Autoimmune diseases occur when a body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue. In the case of inflammatory arthritis a person’s joints are frequently attacked, resulting in chronic pain and debilitating inflammation. The most common inflammatory arthritis diseases are Ankylosing Spondylitis, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, Psoriatic Arthritis, Reactive Arthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Still’s Disease, and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Show Us Your Hands! is an international awareness movement which serves to unite and inspire the inflammatory arthritis community. For more information, please visit www.showusyourhands.org. Show Us Your Hands! can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Case #1: let’s imagine a purely hypothetical situation in which I receive housekeeping services from a particular organization. Let’s further imagine them hypothetically calling me to inform me that my regular housekeeper will be away for five weeks and that they will be contracting out housekeeping services to a temp agency. We could also imagine that I asked whether I will get the same person every week, to which they hypothetically respond that this can’t be guaranteed. Leading to the hypothetical situation of having to take three hours every week – an amount of time that often represents most of my entire workday – to run around after someone telling them how to clean my apartment.”

Read More: theseatedview.blogspot.com/2012/04/customer-service-what-concept.html