Miss Patricia Ford is a 58 years old retired Chief executive officer from a paper printing firm in new jersey. She currently operates a grocery stall a few miles away from her home. She lives with her husband as her three children have since left home to attend to their work in various towns. She commutes to her business every morning using a family car. She has never had been diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis before. However, there has been a case of the disorder along the family line which was occurred to her late grandmother. Her lack of physical exercise and use of junk foods has resulted in her being obese, although she generally appears healthy.
In the recent past, she has been complaining of severe pain in her joints, fatigue, fever and weight loss. Also, she has been noticing that her joints swell and becomes still especially in the morning and after rest. After visiting community healthcare, the nurse performed a diagnosis to establish which disease she could be suffering from. Imaging exams were done on her left knee and hip joints as they turned out to be the most affected parts. The examination showed tears in the ring of cartilage. Since this could have several causes, more exams were recommended to rule out the presence of Rheumatoid Arthritis. A blood test revealed an increase in erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) as well as swelling, redness and increased warmth around the joints which confirmed that the was suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
There is no cure for this condition. However, the physician can recommend various ways of reducing the severity of the disease. In this case, Miss Ford was prescribed to use Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to reduce the pain and inflammation on her joints. Secondly, she was advised by her occupational therapist to engage in physical exercise to make the bones strong as well as eating healthy. She was advised to walk to her workplace regularly. She was advised that if the symptoms persist, she will undergo joint surgery to repair the damaged joints.
Questions
Does Rheumatoid Arthritis affect people from a certain age bracket? NO, it can affect people of any age.
Do general symptoms such as painful and swelling joints indicate the presence of Rheumatoid Arthritis? No, there are other disorders with similar symptoms thus needing a thorough examination to rule out the disease.
Can Rheumatoid Arthritis be inherited along the family line? Yes, it may occur if the disorder has been in the family.
Does Rheumatoid Arthritis affect people of a certain gender? No, it affects both sexes although women are more prone than men.
Is there a preventive measure for the disease? No, this is because there are no known causes thus cannot be prevented.
