RA - These are my hands

They show up in photos of me, but I've never actually had them photographed on purpose before. 

These are my hands, the result of 30 years of living with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic auto-immune disorder. Sometimes they hurt beyond belief. Sometimes not so much - there is always a lot of pressure where the fingers are turning into the side of my palm. And doing things - too much typing, needlework, normal stuff like taking a dish out of the oven without touching the oven rack - these things are hard to impossible. 

 I joke I'm growing hooves, but I do miss my hands. They used to be a vanity point of pride, because I had pretty hands.  The loss of functionality matters more, but I miss they way they used to look, too.

And on a totally different note - I kinda love that the nails in this picture have a light touch of glitter on them, left over from my daughter's holiday visit (note to self: buy nail polish remover!), and one has a blob of yellow paint from being able to paint some posters at my church this past Sunday. Fine motor skills are mostly shot, but painting is apparently more gross-motor.  So I can still do that!