This is a rant post about arthritis, so if you don't want to read a lot of whining and whinging just skip it. Some backstory: I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in both hands back in 1983. There were no treatments except physical therapy and a lot of drugs I didn't want to take. That diagnosis put an end to my military career and my hopes of going to medical school and becoming a surgeon. At the time I was an award-winning writer and artist, too, but I also faced losing the ability to write, sketch and paint. It was a very bitter pill to swallow, but there were many more challenges to follow. On top of the diagnosis I developed a rheumatoid nodule that rapidly grew into the size of a baseball on the back of my dominant left hand. It took two surgeries to remove it altogether, and because the surgeries didn't go well I was left with only about 10% use of my hand. I had to relearn to do everything my right hand, and while I taught myself how to write again, ...