I was talking to my mom yesterday. I asked her if anyone else in our family had psoriatic arthritis since it appears that it can be hereditary. After Mom thought for awhile and I explained to her what the symptoms of PA were, she told me that both she and my grandmother had similar symptoms.
"I remember watching your grandmother kneading bread dough and crying because her hands hurt so much......but it was the years of the great depression and she had no other choice but to make our own bread," Mom recalled.
"So many years later, when my own hands began to swell and become painful, I knew what it was. I didn't ask my doctor about it because I thought there was nothing to do but put up with the pain...but I was lucky. I only had a few joints involved and after two or three years, my joints became all knobby, but the pain went away."
My goodness. I didn't know. Poor Mom - poor Grandma Ella.
I have very few memories of my grandmother Ella, since she died when I was a little girl. How I wish that I could very gently hold her hands now. And knead her bread for her.
2 comments:
The good old genetic factor...thankfully, we live in an age where we have so much access to information that we have more insight on our diseases and ways in which to cope than in Grandma's era.
I was very lucky to have my Grandma until last April, where she passed away at the age of 99. We were so sure we would celebrate her 100th, but it was not to be.
There is a genetic link to whatever I have going on. My Mother was affected, and I remember her telling me of her Grandmother and Great-Grandmother with similar issues.
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