As luck would have it, during the past few weeks my most difficult moments had been sometime during the afternoon. I wasn’t exactly sure how things were going to work out, but I was hopeful that the timing of my flares would work in my favor.

Nicely enough, during my first few days things actually seemed to work. Instead of experiencing the worst moment of my flares sometime around 5 or 6 in the afternoon, I started experiencing them later in the evening – around 8 or 9. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, or maybe it was just the fact that my drop in energy levels shifted correspondingly with my new schedule…either way, I was cool with things. After all, it’s nice to be able to add ‘mastering the art of taking a nap just a few hours before my bedtime’ to my list of skills. (I wonder how this would look on my resume?)

But the day before yesterday, my precarious RA schedule had a head-on collision with my work schedule.

Half an hour before I was supposed to leave my house, a flare started (and continued to get worse by the minute). At least there is one part that seems to be quite consistent – during these flares, the worst of the worst typically lasts about 90 minutes. I could write off 30 minutes, but I still had one hour left. Exactly enough time to cover both my commute and my first half hour of class. Great.

And while, during some of my worst moments, I often use images of myself going to work and teaching as a way to pull through these tough times, during this flare this trick just wasn’t working. The proximity of the different realities in my life were closer than they had ever been before.

As I struggled with the fact that I “had to” go to work, a thought popped into my head that actually took me by surprise.

I didn’t have to do a thing.

And if I needed to, I could call in sick.

Once I allowed myself that possibility, the impossibility of going to work seemed to fade away. From one minute to the next, going to work suddenly seemed like a possibility.

It wasn’t one of my best commutes – and trust me, traffic had nothing to do with it. But I made it. I went to my classroom, and I started to teach. Just as I expected, half an hour into my class, the worst of the pain passed. (Well, not necessarily passed…more like my DEFCON indicator went down a notch.)

Looking back, it was my best “imaginary” sick day ever!

And if one of these days I need to take a “real” sick day, that’s exactly what I am going to do.

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!

Normally this wouldn’t be big news…except for the fact that over the past couple  of weeks my worst flares have taken place smack dab in the middle of the afternoon.

A few months back, when I agreed to teach (at the time I signed up for one class – today I’m starting my third!), my concern was with my morning hours. For months, my toughest time of day had been at the start of the day – with my morning RA stiffness and all. Surprisingly enough, though, my rheumatoid arthritis seemed to understand was going on, and automatically rescheduled its worst moments to later in the day. I worked with it, and it worked with me.

Yesterday, I was expecting another major episode during the afternoon. It didn’t happen. It did, however, come later in the evening. I actually smiled a little when I realized that it had broken its “usual” schedule. I’m hoping that my rheumatoid arthritis is once taking in these cues, and will start rescheduling some of my worst flares for some time other than the middle of the afternoon.

I’ll continue to work with it, and I’m sure that it will continue to work with me.

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!

I marveled in my ability to actually dance, even though my knees are once again being slightly affected by my rheumatoid arthritis. The last time I went dancing was a few months ago. To be honest, I felt a little awkward dancing with my crutches that evening a while back…but I did have fun that night, and in the end that is what matters most. While I was not using my crutches this evening, I did have the sense that they *might* once again be coming out of their corner in the vestibule sometime soon.

During the evening I spoke with another professor in my department, and opened up a little bit about the fact that I live with rheumatoid arthritis. I’ve had a relatively good past couple of weeks (despite my cold), but over the past couple of days I’ve noticed that pervasive pain returning to all of the joints in my body. I guess my need to bring up this topic was somewhat preemptive….I’d rather explain the presence of a cane or crutches now, ahead of time, instead of when I am “in the weeds” (as chefs would say).

Even though I had expected the receive a supportive response, I was still surprised with how overwhelmingly supportive the response was. To sum it up in a few words, I was told that if I ever did have a day where I was not able to make it to campus, one of the other professors in the department would happily fill in for me.

And while deep down inside I hope to not reach such a point, I do find a lot of comfort in knowing that if I do have a really bad day, my colleagues are willing to step up and help me.

Speaking about disability in the workplace is always a sensitive topic, and I don’t think that there is a simple answer for how it should or should not be done…but I am learning, firsthand, that in my situation being open about it is only helping me to feel more confident about this recent commitment that I have made.

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!

In a previous post, I had mentioned that I was going to lower the pace of my blogging due to numerous reasons…so this is part of the reason why readers might not have seen many posts from me last week as they are accustomed to…but there’s more to the story.

To be honest, I am once again in the middle of a flare. My feet/ankles and hands/wrists are taking a beating, and every now and then my RA decides to pay a visit to a knee or an elbow or a shoulder. Early last week, I once again returned to the health clinic for an anti-inflammatory injection. Two days later, when things got worse (I usually get better two days after one of these shots), I returned for another injection. I am currently two days past this last injection, and am hoping that there is indeed a bigger improvement.

I’ve been trying to break away from the habit of labeling certain pain episodes as “the worst ever” (even though they would certainly qualify) because I don’t think it helps me move through these rough times. What I do try to do, though, is try to think about how long it’s been since my RA has been this active. (November.) This little mental activity allows me to more accurately asses my current pain, and also reminds me that I have been through this before and will get through it again.

This flare, however, is not the reason why I did not post much this last week.

A few months ago, at the beginning of September, I committed to taking a foreign language class at one of the local universities. The course met three times a week, and even though it was something I was definitely interested in, I was slightly hesitant at the thought of being able to actually attend something of this nature while living with rheumatoid arthritis that seems to peak on a frequent basis.

In the end, I proved that I was able to do even more than I had expected, despite my pain and disability.

The reason why I did not write much this past week, and why I will not be writing as much in the near future, is that I am once again going back to class in a couple of days. Unlike last semester, where I attended three times a week, this semester I will be attending five times a week. (Gulp!)

There is also one other major difference that I would like to share. This time around, I won’t be sitting in the classroom, taking notes…I will be standing up (as much as my RA allows me to) in front of the classroom, teaching the class!  I will be teaching the Advanced English course at one of the local universities, with the possibility of teaching more design-related classes in the future.

So while my syllabus is complete and the course website is set up, I still have a lot of work to do – much more than I have had during the past year (discounting all the work and effort that was required to bring my rheumatoid arthritis under some semblance of control, of course). Am I (once again?) slightly hesitant with this commitment that I have made? Yes. I also have no doubt, however, that a few months down the road I will once again be able to look back and smile at what I was able to accomplish.

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!

That interview did not move forward…but I am happy to share that this morning, I did have an in-person interview for another (much more interesting) job lead. I have been much busier than usual lately, so I didn’t even have time to fret about things like my crutches, about if/how to talk about my rheumatoid arthritis, etc. I just showed up as I am, and presented my normal self. It seems that things went really well.

And the oddest past of having wondered so much in the past on how to incorporate the presence of chronic illness in my professional life was the fact that upon sharing that I lived with rheumatoid arthritis, the man with whom I was speaking shared with me that he had recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. We even swapped stories about physical therapy. It’s funny how things work out in the end.

Immediately after my interview I went to my dentist’s office for a drop-in visit. (Yet another pleasure of receiving health care outside of the United States – not only did I drop in without calling, but I was in the dentists’s chair ten minutes later, and fifteen minutes after that I was on my way home.) When I was brushing my teeth this morning I noticed that one of my rear teeth had broken. Luckily, the crack was somewhat superficial and was no where close to the root.

Just another reminder of the importance of dental hygiene…which for me personally is usually placed on the back burner whenever I am dealing with RA flares.

So for anyone who might have been a little concerned about the absence of a post earlier today, please be assured that is was only due to good reasons, and had nothing to do with the flares that I have been experiencing recently in my hands and in my feet. In fact, my hands are doing much better than they were just a week or two ago.

All in all, it was a wonderful morning…even including my unplanned visit with my dentist!

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!

When I was in graduate school I took a year off to work as an intern at Autodesk, the maker of AutoCAD and other architectural software products. This was right around the time with the first web browsers were released, and when the internet as we know it started to bevelop. One of the company’s first web projects crossed my desk, and I was sold.

Right around that time, I became aware of some emerging design fields that really interested me – user interface design, interaction design, and information architecture design. When I returned to school in Cambridge to complete my thesis year, I decided that as soon as I graduated I would return to San Francisco and look for a job in this area. Interestingly enough, all of the skills that I had just learned in architecture were perfectly transferable to this new industry.

For the past ten plus years, I have been working with the design of software applications and web sites, in some form or another. At the same time, I have also worked on architectural projects big and small (the current one involves lots of adobe bricks and hand carved stone). I haven’t once regretted pursuing a career which encompasses multiple design fields. (Although I am always being asked by clients and recruiters: Which one do you really like? They don’t seem to understand that these different design projects have become so intertwined, that I consider my career track to be a single – albeit hybrid – one.)

Six years ago, I made the decision to leave my full-time office job (with benefits and all), and start working as an independent design consultant. I have worked on the user interface design of large retail consumer sites and on the information architecture design of complex accounting and content management systems. I have worked on projects from multiple locations. At any given time I am dialing into a client meeting from the U.S., Europe, or South America. Internet telephone and high speed broadband has provided me this flexibility in my work environment.

This increased flexibility has been a good thing (I love how it’s about what I do, and not where I do it from), especially because my rheumatoid arthritis begin to appear at right around the same time when I started working independently. In one way this was a blessing in disguise – while commuting into an office might be particularly difficult on a flare day, walking into my home office is often much more manageable.

I have always informed my clients that I live with rheumatoid arthritis, and that the ups and downs of my illness are very unpredictable. I have never received anything other than kind words and a lot of support and understanding. I usually give them a heads-up when I am entering a particularly bad flare, and the most time I have ever needed to take off was three work days (during which time, I am proud to say, no deliverables were delayed!).

During the past nine months my rheumatoid arthritis has undergone a pretty severe progression, but with each day I continue to learn how to manage all of the activities that I need to accomplish. Launching and managing this blog over the past few months has given me a lot of confidence, and has allowed me to continue refining my professional skills. On the absolute worst days, I still find pleasure in designing, writing, and interacting with others – and I am thrilled that this blog has allowed me to combine my personal life with my professional life.

I am determined to continue working with and expanding my design and creative abilities, despite the fact that I live with rheumatoid arthritis.

The title of this year’s World Arthritis Day (October 12, 2009) is “Let’s Work Together”. This theme considers the challenges of work, be it paid employment, voluntary work or work at home supporting a family, and embraces people with rheumatic diseases, healthcare professionals and employers.

For the past few months I have dedicated myself almost full-time to this blog, as I continue to look for and explore consulting opportunities. I anxiously await my next contract job (don’t worry, this blog won’t suffer if/when I find that consulting gig!), and hope that by World Arthritis Day, I will be able to share news that I am gainfully employed.

At the moment, what is holding me back is the economic downturn, and not my rheumatoid arthritis. (That’s one way to put a positive spin on this recession, no?)

If you, your organization, or someone you know is in need of consulting services in the areas of web design and development, information architecture, or user interface design, please do keep me in mind! I have worked for large corporations and for small organizations, on projects ranging from two weeks to two years.

Hey, it’s not every day that you can hire a superhero!

Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy’s design portfolio and resume can be viewed online at www.intikala.com.

Together, we can continue to show the world the abilities of people living with disabilities.

Stay tuned…for the next adventure of Rheumatoid Arthritis Guy!