The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Mayo Clinic - Getting It Right!

by Dessa Rodeffer, Quill Publisher/Owner

August 13, 2008

The five and half hours to Mayo Clinic is worth the drive to me as I received another great report on my Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I had a long list of things I had difficulty with when I was diagnosed in 2004, such as shaking hands, opening car doors, getting out of a bathtub, walking, range of motion in my arms, even my jaws would lock.

Thursday, my doctors had the usual blood tests and also had x-rays of my hands and feet to see how the small joints were doing.

There was no inflammation in my joints, no liver damage, no bone or joint damage in my hands or feet, and my sheet I had filled out, showed I had improved to "No Difficulty" in all categories.

Before I went to Mayo, some specialists here thought I had a disc problem after MRIs and Scans, and thought I had carpel tunnel in both hands but a blood test had never been ordered to see if I had the Rheumatoid factor in my blood.

Mayo's doctors' goals, they said, were to get me back to where I was before I had it. They have done it with a simple shot - Humira. I hope, if you have greater medical concerns than you can solve here, you will try the drive to Mayo Clinic.