After being diagnosed I was desperate to find information about MCTD. What was it and what was it going to do to me?! There wasn't much available about MCTD so I started looking into Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. I met enough criteria to be diagnosed with both and there was information about them so it would have to do. This is the type of stuff that stood out:
"Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) causes premature mortality, disability and compromised quality of life in the industrialized and developing world."
"There is no cure for RA."
"RA continues to increase in severity and is unremitting."
"In all, 67% of the men and 57% of the women reported that they were no longer capable of performing their former normal occupational activities because of RA."
"50-60% of patients had stopped working after a mean disease duration of about 10 years."Fortunately the prognosis for RA has improved and that last one is no longer a valid statistic. And fortunately its now my understanding that people with MCTD tend to have a more mild version of RA. But I didn't know that ten years ago and 50% disabled after ten years was a stat that spent a lot of time at the forefront of my mind. I would try not to think about it, be hopeful and such, but that didn't work so well. It was a stat I couldn't forget. It was a stat that made me dread thinking about anything related to my future.
Ten years later. To feel healthy. To be able to do even the most routine activities. To be able to shovel snow. To be able to race my bike. Normally those things aren't much of anything. But right now, for me, they're everything.
