The story
of Henk Hobe

“I had a really thick finger, maybe twice as thick as normal. But now it’s back to how it should be.” Henk had been struggling with rheumatism in his hands for some time, “The doctor immediately saw that it was osteoarthritis and sent me to the hospital.” At first, it didn’t even bother him that much: “It felt a bit stiff, but it didn’t hurt. When the stiffness increased, I went to see a hand therapist who gave me exercises to keep my hands supple. That did help.”

Positive Results

The medication Henk was currently taking seemed to make little difference to him. “In March of this year, the doctor called me and said, ‘I have a new medication that is showing good results. Do you want to try that?’ Of course I wanted to. For the first three months not much seemed to change, but suddenly I started to notice a difference.”

Delicacy

“Since I’ve been taking the medication, I can do a lot more myself again. I used to be unable to pick up small objects from the ground, the sensitivity was gone. But now I can do it again! Even fiddling with the buttons of a shirt would be a disaster without this medication. My wife would have to do that for me and that seems terrible. The worst stiffness is now gone and that makes a big difference.”

No more pain

The pain has also decreased a lot: “I had very thick knuckles that hurt a lot. If someone gave me a hand, I would cringe from the pain. But the other day someone gave me a hand, and a really firm one at that, and I did feel it, but it didn’t hurt anymore! I also do exercises to bend my little bones one by one, which is a lot better since I started taking this medication.”

Good life

“Of course I hope the day comes when a cure for rheumatism is found. But I am a cheerful person by nature and always see the bright side of things. Right now, thanks to medication, I can live very well with my rheumatism.”

Read more patient stories (Dutch)