Kataneh's story
It was a common sports injury that brought Kataneh, age 22 to the doctor; she had torn a piece of cartilage in her knee. Although she was young, the tear was serious enough to require surgery. At the time, Kataneh thought she would recover quickly after the operation and get back to her active life. Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of her story.
Following the operation, the doctor informed Kataneh that she had arthritis. She remembers that day clearly, "He had to take a call in the middle of letting me know I had this disease and left the room for over half an hour. I didn't know what to do — the only thing I knew about arthritis was that old people got it. I was so scared, I didn't even know what to tell my parents."
It took Kataneh six months to recover from her surgery and to walk normally again, by which time arthritis had also affected her other knee. Notoriously difficult to diagnose, the specific type of rheumatoid arthritis Kataneh has means the disease may continue to spread and move to other joints in her body over time.
Bright and ambitious, Kataneh moved to Montreal to complete her master's degree, where she was far from her regular rheumatologist. While in Montreal, she realized being physically active and consciously choosing to take life more slowly made a huge difference to how she felt every day. After her master's, Kataneh got caught up in the life of a consultant, working long hours, often away from home. The demands of intense travel, stress and the unstable activity took a toll on her health, and made it very difficult for Kataneh to control her arthritis.
Kataneh soon realized that the jobs she enjoyed most demanded lots of travel, long work days, intesity and a pace that her body simply could not sustain. She was exhausted and drained. It was a tough decision, but Kataneh left her job and focused on finding work that allowed her to take care of her body better; by controlling the amount of stress in her life and learning more about how to manage her arthritis more effectively. Today the biggest challenge she faces is having people understand what arthritis is.
"I am still active now — I play tennis, go to the gym and do yoga. How arthritis affects my life is not always obvious to other people," says Kataneh, who doesn't ski or wear high heels as much as she would like anymore. "What is the most challenging for people to understand is how inconsistent my pain is. I can't control when my arthritis will flare up. I feel people don't understand when I cannot continue my usual activities because of a flare up and I worry arthritis sounds like a lame excuse."
"As a result, I found myself not telling people I had arthritis. I would keep silent about it because it is a total conversation stopper," recalls Kataneh, "they just don't know what to say, the majority of people have no idea what arthritis really is."