Father/Mother/Doctor Knows Best

If you're anything like me, you live with a rheumatic disease of one kind or another, and sometimes life stinks. Other times life isn't as bad as it is for that girl in the corner of the waiting room. But one thing is for sure: you're here to get better. And to really get better, you need to be smart.

CreakyJoints doesn't offer a miracle cure for arthritis. If it did, we would have moved to the Bahamas by now. But what we do offer is a chance for you to talk to other people with similar circumstances. A chance to read stories from other people who have already been through what you're going through. We offer an opportunity to learn about new products and treatments from a select group of sponsors who care about making you better. The secret to taking full advantage of CreakyJoints.org, CreakyJoints A-Games, or any other program is to be cautiously optimistic. If you're a New Yorker, you're taught to never trust anyone. This applies, even sometimes, when it comes to CreakyJoints.

Our staff of writers and our sponsors care about your well-being. Just as I believe that our members care about the well-being of the other members. (That's partly why we're growing faster than any other arthritis community in the country.) And in the process of caring, sometimes negative experiences surface. Which is fine. Yet for every bad experience someone has, there are 10 good experiences that go unmentioned. And sometimes when all we hear are problems, we get depressed. I know I do. But just because someone else has big problems, doesn't necessarily mean those problems are headed straight towards you.

If you're not old enough to drink or gamble (not that we encourage either), it's very important that you listen to the people in your life who know best. And sometimes someone posting on the Creaky Board doesn't know best. Or maybe they just had a bad experience, which was a one-time-shot. Who should you listen to? Your parents. Your doctor(s). Anyone named Seth. These are the people who know best, who care most, and who are affected most when you're not feeling well.

I'm not asking you to clean your room. Nor am I asking you to do your homework. And I definitely am not suggesting you study for your SAT's. What I am asking, though, is that anytime you make a decision -- please, for if any, my sake -- talk it over with your doctor. Bring it up with your parents. See what they say. Use CreakyJoints for what it's supposed to be -- a place for support, for suggestions, a place of understanding, and sometimes, a place to enjoy yourself.

Don't rely on CreakyJoints ultimately for medical advice. That's what horoscopes are for.

-- Seth Ginsberg
CreakyJoints President