As already stated on the front page I’m not called Pollyanna and I’m not a penguin. My husband and some friends call Penguin though, and the Pollyanna part relates to my ongoing attempts to play ‘the glad game’ with regard to RA. Am I glad I’ve got it? Don’t be silly. But there are still plenty of positives to talk about … and when I’m having a negative moment I can come back to my blog and remind myself of them!

I’m forty-one, I’m female and if you’re a doctor and know the three f’s that relate to gall bladder problems, I’m the other f too, a bit. I don’t have gall bladder problems though … I do have rheumatoid arthritis (henceforth referred to as RA because I can’t spell it). I was officially diagnosed in February 2008 but suspected it  since a ‘rheumatoid factor’ test (RF) came back positive in December of 2007, after I’d been suffering odd aches and pains in my hands, wrists and especially elbows for about a month. As I do a job involving a lot of typing I jumped to the carpel tunnel syndrome conclusion, but the doc said the symptoms weren’t right. She said while it was very unlikely, it was worth being tested for RA. To both our surprises the RF test came back slightly positive – I say slightly advisedly. My consultant tells me that people suffering from severe RA can have an RF figure in its thousands. Normal is zero to twenty – but most people are closer to zero than twenty. Mine was twenty-two. My immediate reaction was that surely that doesn’t really count – I was wrong!

I’m ridiculously happily married with a bunch of cats and no kids (entirely by choice on both our parts, and I suspect I could say all our parts and include the cats). I live in Norfolk, UK and I run a small business.