Sjogrens' Syndrome Foundation - Walk A Bouts for May the Annual Awareness Month

I was trying to put a message on Twitter but of course stupid me, was not thinking, so This horrid disease like a thief in the middle of the night stole ALL of my TEETH within a year!!~ Not only has it taken my teeth and created a HUGE expense for "special dentures" but it truly messed with my own self-esteem! Even though I have the dentures, I must take them out completely at night every night, and sometimes at home, I don't put them in for several hours. When I look in the mirror at myself with them not in, I appear to be a 90 year old woman with all the wrinkles, no lips, and the "sunk in" way my face looks. that are not there unless the dentures are in. So, I attest to this disease needing MORE research, Actually, there is not ONE medication for "Sjogren's". There are a couple of meds that may help "somewhat" but neither of them really work very well. I take on of them daily "pilocarpine" and I truly don't see much of a difference. ... Like ALL autoimmune illnesses, they cause so very much more "damage" to the body, that often we may not realize until, like myself, my teeth began to fall out, from the gum line... even taking medication using everything I could for cry mouth, chewing sugar free gum and always sipping on something - so there is not a thing I could have done or not done to keep this from happening.

http://events.sjogrens.org/site/TR?fr_id=1060&pg=entry

"WAAD 15" World Autoimmune Arthritis Day beginning Friday! Pick your team and Join in on the Fun!

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day

World Autoimmune Arthritis Day's 6 day virtual, online car race to collect resources anraise MAJOR awareness for autoimmune arthritis diseases is just 3 1/2 weeks away- please share this poster, print it and give to your rheumy, use it to personally invite friends, supporters, those in your community groups. The event will happen HERE on Facebook and Twitter, along with some internet navigation and sharing of awareness submissions on your own pages, so plan to tune in!

More about how it works:
1. The Race Cars will represent each nonprofit from around the world that has officially signed up to participate. They will be the Nonprofit Race Teams and will compete against each other to "win WAAD15". Winning is based on who gets the most mileage points, but they need YOU to earn those for them.
2. On May 1st registration will open at www.worldautoimmunearthritisday.org. It's FREE to register, and while you of course can play along without registering, if you do register you can help your favorite nonprofits earn mileage points AND you can earn your own mileage points too. The top 5 registered participants will qualify to win prizes of their own! Register solo or get a group together and play as a team (more details will be posted on this soon). During registration, you can pick up to THREE of your favorite participating nonprofits to support and 'race for'; each of those nonprofits will earn 25 mileage points for your support.
3. On May 15th, at 12pm ET/USA, the race will begin RIGHT HERE on this page and our Twitter page @WAutoimmuneAD. All participating nonprofits with Facebook and Twitter will also post that the race has begun and provide instructions for those just tuning in.
4. Also on May 15th, time TBD, there will be a special post for memoriam laps, where we as a community remember those we have lost to these diseases. We will ask all people to share and add names of those you are remembering to the post.
5. Those registered to race in honor of nonprofits will receive, via email the day prior to the event, the official Global Race Map, which gives times of posts, where to go learn more about specific subjects, details about all the Detours (live webinar chats) and how to register to attend those, and detailed information about the live awareness activities-including when they will post and what they will be. All others can receive this information at the WAAD website after the event has begun.
6. Nonprofit Race Teams will also earn mileage points when you "like" or "share" the posts or tweets from their account or when you do awareness action items in their honor. Registered participants will also earn mileage points for posting/turning in awareness call to action items.
7. In addition to the live social media action, including sharing up to 6 resources from EACH of the over 30 nonprofits participating and several live Detours (webinars-subjects and hosts announced soon), there will also be a page where you can submit information about good practitioners (any specialty) in your area so that we can create a map that will be available year around on our website.
8. The race will end on May 21st at 12pm ET/USA when the checkered flag waves. The top 5 Nonprofit Race Teams and the top 5 Registered Participants (individual players) and top 3 Registered Participant Teams (signed up to play together) will be announced. Trophies/plaques will be sent to the winners, along with select prizes.
Nothing like this has ever been done but we can use this to push autoimmune arthritis into the forefront for 6 days. Are you with us???

I wanted to remind everyone about "WAAD 15" that opens this Friday and will continue through the week. Here is more information about the event, how you can participate on the "Race Around the Globe" so these horrid illnesses can be "shut down" in their tracks! We hope you come, pick your team, and be there at the starting line! Ready, Set, and "Green Flag" down and ready to race!