Arthritis Is Not What You Think There are a lot of misconceptions behind arthritis. When you hear the word “arthritis,” you may have a variety of images that appear in the back of your mind. An old man with his cane, crouched over in pain, or a little old lady who is not able to lift her hands high enough up so that she can brush her hair, so she hobbles into the salon to get her hair styled may be at the forefront of what you are seeing. The truth is a lot nastier than that. Let me paint a picture of what arthritis is likely to look like: A college pitcher, who is in the middle of dinner with his teammates and coach, celebrating a big victory over their rival school, sneaking off to the bathroom to roll his shoulder and stretch, because it …show more content…
Despite what we think about when we hear “arthritis,” the truth is that it’s almost impossible to paint just one picture to explain what it looks like. There are over one hundred varieties of arthritis, and anybody can get the diagnosis at any time. To me, that’s a scary statistic, especially when we consider an “old person’s” disease can affect someone as young as ten years old. For many people, arthritis is not the bone spurs or the incredible pain that crosses over them when they move their body. To put it simply, many people with arthritis might not even know they have it, because in their heads, they are seeing the old man and the old woman, and their constant ache clearly doesn’t compare to their suffering, so they continue with their daily lives, thinking they are just going to take some Advil or Tylenol and power on through it. For some people, this is just fine. They will get through their arthritis and it will correct itself as they take better care of themselves. For others, they will wonder why there is no end to the aches, and by time they finally get themselves to the doctor, damage has already been done and they can only hope for a little bit of relief instead of