Tag Archives: rheumatoid arthritis patient

Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Story

From RA to Running a Marathon – Katelynd Park is Committed to Supporting the Fight for a Cure

Just over two years ago, at the age of 24, Katelynd Park was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was a devastating blow. She remembers thinking, how could someone so young and healthy be diagnosed with this debilitating disease? Katelynd has come a long way since her diagnosis. She is preparing to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, her first marathon, as part of the Arthritis Foundation team on October 8. She plans on showing others, and herself, that RA will not keep her from living her life.
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Seamus Mullen Rheumatoid Arthritis patient

Star Chef Seamus Mullen Sizzles Despite Rheumatoid Arthritis

Award-winning chef, cookbook author, owner of three New York restaurants and overseeing a fourth in London, Seamus Mullen, 40, seems unstoppable. But just a few years ago, he was battling pain from sometimes-debilitating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) – a disease that threatened his career and his future.

When Arthritis Today first talked to Seamus in 2010, he was executive chef and partner of a trendy Spanish restaurant in New York City. It was a cloudy spring afternoon, and Seamus was in the kitchen prepping for the evening rush, facing the task of cutting up a 35-­pound lamb.

He mentioned that his hands were hurting that day – the only hint besides a slight limp that the talented, up-and-­coming chef had been diagnosed with RA a few years earlier. It had been a bolt out of the blue – he has no diagnosed family history of the disease – and had turned his world upside down. But it also fueled his determination to continue doing what he loves.

With the precision and patience of a surgeon, he used two knives, a Japanese meat cleaver and a saw to separate the lamb, gently placing each part – the rack, neck, shoulders, and so on – to the side. By midnight, when the restaurant closed, he had worked 12 hours, though too often he worked 15 or more.
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