Something different...

Hey All,

I just thought I'd share an interesting experience I had today.   I made this friend a few months ago; her son is in the same part-time preschool program as my son.  She and I met on a field trip, and immediately found we had lots in common.  Since then, she and I have become quite good friends.  Well, the thing is my friend is from Taiwan; her first language is Chinese.  Actually, she is a Chinese professor.  And the thing is that by the time we met, I was well into my Remicade treatment and donig really well healthwise.  She has rarely, therefore, seen me feeling badly.  In fact, I've only had to cancel one playdate due to a flare. 

So when I opened up to this lady to tell her about my RA, she was somewhat confused.  She said, "But Kati, you LOOK so healthy.  I don't understand."

I tried to explain to her that I didn't look sick, and that b/c of the remicade, my life has changed drasticaly.  But as we all know, its hard enough to explain this disease to someone whose first language is English.

So today, she asked me again to tell her the name of my disease because she was trying to figure out if there was a name for rheumatoid arthritis in Chinese.  So that's when I got the good idea to google R.A.  Once I showed her the pictures of hands affected by R.A., she totally understood what it was that was afflicting me. 

And that is when she told me that she knew about R.A. because there was a famous Tawainese writer who suffered greatly from the disease.  She even googled her picture for me, and she explained that she was considered to be one fo the most inspirational writers in Taiwan, and that all the children there study her writing in school.  My friend then went on to tell me that  the writer is known as, "The Fighter," and that she is a symbol of triumph in their country because she has written over 30 books even though her body was completely deformed by R.A. and could barely put pen to paper.  

Anyway, for some reason I found the whole conversation interesting and inspirational, and I got the idea that you guys might want to hear about it.  I wish I knew the writer's name, but neither of us knew how to translate her name from the Chinese characters.

- Kati

That's a great story, Kati, thanks for sharing it!

Kati,

Thank you for sharing that is a great story. 

Tess

wow, this is amazing, and definitely an inspirational way to think about things!

thank you.

That's great!  Any idea who the author is?  I'd love to get a translated edition of her writing!