Will Rheumatoid Arthritis keep me from becoming a nurse?

[Umeed]

Hi to everyone. I am a 34 year old stay at home mom of 3. I was diagnosed with RA at 24 years of age. Had a long and hard battle with the illness. At present, the RA is under control. I have days when I feel like I can do anything and then I have days when I feel very limited in what I can do.

I have always had a dream of working in the medical field. But due to the RA and having little kids I have not taken any steps in that direction yet. However, lately, I have had a strong desire to become a nurse. And I think, I would be good at it. I have a college degree but not in science. So I will have about 2 years of prereqs to cover.

My question to you all is: Do you think it is worth it to put myself in a long training and become an RN about 5 years from now, when I have RA?

Also, those of you who are nurse; think it is doable physically with controlled RA?

l would very much appreciate your comments....looking for advise very badly.

Thank you.

[NAURN]

I think if your RA is under control, you can definitely do it. And there are always areas of nursing that you can choose that may be less physically demanding

[llg, PhD, RN]

I think you should talk to your physician about the course that your RA is likely to take and whether or not the stress of a nursing career (both psychological stress and physical stress of manual labor) will make your RA worse. We can't answer that here.

Here on allnurses.com you will find people who will say "You go, girl!" to whatever you want to do. They mean well, but it may not suit your situation. Nursing is very demanding and RA is a disease that requires diligent management. Talk with your doctor and get his/her opinion before making any decision.

[mama2eli]

I'm in the same boat as you (minus one kid) :). I'm 31, working on my pre-req's now, and intend on enrolling in a nursing program through a local community college. I have RA. I was diagnosed about 3 years ago. It is well managed, but I have the same fears as you. I will plug along as best as I can, and like the first response, find a job that is not as physically demanding. The second response is correct in taking a logical approach to what we want to obtain, but really, only we can answer that. The day to day thing is always changing on us, isn't it? Good Luck in your future