Arthritis victim has 'message of hope'

Wendy Housel considers surgeries to treat her arthritis 'opportunities' for a better life

By Jamie Allen
CNN

(CNN) -- So far, Wendy Housel has undergone surgeries to replace nine of her joints -- both shoulders, both wrists, both hips, both knees, and her left elbow.

She's had a "revision" done on her right hip. She's had two cervical spine surgeries. And she just had a cataract (the result of taking steroids to combat arthritis) removed from one eye.

At 49, she knows all too well the ravages of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which afflicts more than 2 million Americans. But with more surgeries on the horizon, Housel keeps a positive attitude.

"I do not call them surgeries. I call them opportunities," says Housel, who lives in Chatham, Illinois, with her elderly mother and her sister's family. "The surgeries have improved in a dramatic way the quality of my life. That's the mindset that I go into surgery with.

"Surgery is just a normal part of my life," she says.

Striking old, young

Housel is not the new poster victim for arthritis; she's merely an accurate depiction for the illness. While most Americans stereotype RA as something that targets senior citizens, the reality is that arthritis can strike just about anyone.

EXTRA INFORMATION Learn more about arthritis symptoms, prevalence and treatment     RESOURCES For information about arthritis treatment, visit the Arthritis Foundation   Web site or call 1-800-283-7800

Housel was diagnosed when she was 23. Within a few months, the pain was so debilitating that she couldn't get out of bed or open her mouth.

Treatment -- surgery and drugs -- has helped, but Housel was forced out of work, on permanent disability, by 1990.

Today, she takes 13 different drugs a day (she's embarrassed by the high number), and she spends most of her disability check on "the extras" associated with caring for arthritis -- a $436 monthly insurance payment, for example, and a $200-a-month co-pay on Enbrel, a promising arthritis drug.

That just maintains her current status, too. In other words, Housel knows that -- barring a medical miracle -- she has no chance of rebounding from the disease. After nearly three decades of varying treatment, the damage to her body is done.

"It's really too late for me in terms of intervening in a meaningful way with my disease," she says.

Ambassador of hope

But that's not slowing her down. When she's not taking her daily walk, or caring for her mother, Housel says she's spreading the word on how people who contract RA can avoid her circumstances.

Housel is part of a 13-person patient advisory council for the Arthritis Foundation; it keeps her up to date on the latest studies. In the last half decade, researchers have discovered that aggressive treatment of arthritis within the first few years of diagnosis can prevent RA from worsening, she says.

A complete recovery is not possible for her, but it's not too late for new victims, she says. And, as may be expected from someone who turns "surgeries" into "opportunities," Housel sees the positive side to her condition -- a "message of help and hope."

"I am hoping that I will be a dinosaur, a dying breed," she says. "Intervention early on with these wonderful new drugs that are available means that people are going to live a long-term life of high quality. And that's absolutely thrilling to me."