Renoir

Did you know that Renoir apparently had the first well-documented case of RA in history? Apparently, though he suffered from severe joint deformation in his hands in his later years, he continued to paint by tying his paintbrush to his hand. Now that's determination for you!!

I learned about Renoir from an interesting article sent to me by my friend JG: 11 Famous People With Rheumatoid Arthritis. Though I have to admit that I have not heard of all of these people  (and they are saying Lucille Ball may not have actually had RA) it is interesting to see the various accomplishments of people who have dealt with RA: artists, movie stars, Oscar winners, singers, heart surgeons...even a Nobel Peace Prize winner! They clearly didn't let their RA stop them - and neither should you!

UPDATE: My blog also publishes automatically to my page on the Arthritis Foundation RA Community. One of my readers there passed along this link, which is a film of Renior painting in his later years. In the film you can see how RA has severely disfigured his hands, but he still continued to paint up until the day he died. It is a little bit disturbing to see his disfigured hands, but you have to remember that in the late 1800s there were no meds at all to manage RA. And it is amazing to see him persevere despite the RA.

(Heard of any other good RA Factoids? Send them my way and I will post them!!)