My Health Experience: ‘Exercise is the best way I can manage arthritis’

Most people think of arthritis as a disease that affects older people but I was only 16 and in fourth year of secondary school when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Even at a young age, I decided I was not going to let this disease define me or what I could become, and it has not stopped me playing football at the highest level I could.

I’m 33 now and have been goalkeeper for the Longford Gaelic football senior team for the past 14 years. I’m also the current holder of the GAA kick fada title, having beaten the world record by 3 metres with a kick of 75 metres last September.

Not a lot of people would be aware that I have arthritis as I’ve never made an issue of it and always preferred to keep it quiet. But, as I near the end of my football career, I would like to share my story about how exercise has helped me to manage my condition.

In my teens I noticed that my hands had started to stiffen up and in the mornings I was unable to brush my teeth or open milk cartons until they had warmed up. Being a typical teenager, I didn’t say anything to my parents for a while and when I did tell my mam, she brought me to the doctor to get checked out.

While we were there, she asked him to test me for rheumatoid arthritis because my symptoms reminded her a bit of those of my aunt’s. She was diagnosed with the disease after she gave birth to her son, who is the same age as me. The doctor was a bit surprised by the request but he did the test and when the results came back, I was diagnosed with RA.

Even though it was a shock to be told I had arthritis at such a young age, I was lucky in one way to be diagnosed so quickly. I was sent to a specialist in the northwest through the public system, which wasn’t a very positive experience. I saw a different doctor every time I went there; one of them told me I had growing pains and would grow out of it.

Coming up to the Leaving Cert, my hands were getting really stiff and I was having to get up earlier and earlier in the mornings to warm them up.

I had been put on an arthritis medicine called Methotrexate and was taking Difene painkillers.

I was transferred to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, which meant my dad had to take a day off work to bring me up for each appointment. Everybody was given an appointment for 9.30am so the waiting room was always packed and it could be 2pm before you were seen. Again, I was being seen by different doctors every time; they reviewed my medication and told me to come back in three months.

Private healthcare My parents decided at this stage to go down the private route and they took me to see Prof Oliver Fitzgerald, a consultant reheumatologist at St Vincent's.

At our first appointment, he told us about a new drug called Infliximab that was on trial. I became one of the first 20 people to go on that drug. I had to go to the hospital every four weeks at the beginning and then every eight weeks for infusions. The infusions worked within the day and I would remain pain-free until the next one was due.

The only downside was that I was at college in Sligo at the time, so travelling up and down to Dublin was tough. I was eventually transferred to Manorhamilton which meant I had to take only half a day off college for each treatment.

At this stage I had been on Methotrexate for a while and I was concerned about the long-term effects of the drug on my body so I told my doctors I would like to come off it. Then I heard about a new drug called Humira with which you could inject yourself at home twice a month. It worked really well for me and I had no adverse side affects.

As I got older and started a steady relationship, I began to think about the future. I knew that I would have to go off all my medications if I ever wanted to try for a child so I decided to do a trial run after speaking to my medical team.

Five years ago, I came off all the medication and, fortunately, I have been fine since. I have my bloods monitored every three months and, while my knuckles do get red and sore every now and then, it passes after a day or two.

Sign of weakness I was never ashamed of having arthritis but I did not want people to know about it because I didn't want them to feel sorry for me or see it as a sign of weakness.

I’ve seen all the great work that has been done in the GAA to promote awareness of mental health issues and I started thinking about the need to raise awareness of arthritis and, in particular, of the importance of physical activity in improving symptoms.

When my aunt was diagnosed, she was told to get into bed and mind herself. We now know that was the wrong advice as the evidence shows that the more active you are, the better you will do.

My aunt deteriorated very quickly after her diagnosis and has had to have a few operations since.

I knew from my sporting background that the stronger I could make my muscles and my body, the less pressure there would be on my joints.

I’m sure there are teenagers out there playing Gaelic, soccer and rugby who are being diagnosed with arthritis and it’s so important that the message gets out there that they should keep up sport. If I had been told I had to give up sport, it would have broken me.

Arthritis Ireland is rolling out walking groups and exercise programmes all over the country to encourage people with arthritis to get involved in physical activity.

I know I’m far from the worst case as arthritis goes. I have it only in my hands and wrists and a little in my elbows, but there are people who struggle to get out of bed in the morning with the pain and the stiffness. I am in remission at the moment and once my arthritis is not affecting me, I don’t think about it.

I take one day at a time although I worry about the long-term effects on my body of all the medication I have taken over the years.

My wife, Anne, and I got married on New Year’s Eve, 2012, and we have a lively nine-month-old baby boy called Rían who will be running around the place before too much longer, so I can say without a doubt that my arthritis is not holding me back in any way.

In conversation with

Campaign to get people with arthritis moving

As part of its Moving Is the Best Medicine campaign, Arthritis Ireland is raising awareness of the fact that even a small dose of physical activity, whether it's walking to work instead of driving or taking the stairs instead of the lift, can improve a person's symptoms dramatically. It is recommended that people with arthritis start slowly and build up to at least 30 minutes, five times a week.

Arthritis Ireland's booklet Physical Activity and Arthritis includes detailed information about building and maintaining an achievable exercise plan. The support organisation also has an exercise website that features its network of exercise groups in communities across Ireland. The programme includes walking groups, aqua and hydrotherapy classes and seated exercise classes. For more information, see arthritisandexercise.ie or tel: 1890 252846.