Nurse practitioner teams with Food Network chef to help cooks with RA
by JESSICA L. FINCH Associate Editor

Nurse practitioner Patricia Daul, executive director of Clinical Services, Buffalo Infusion Center, left, was chosen to work on the national campaign, "I Can with RA in the Kitchen." Cathleen Incorvia, who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis eight years ago, said the campaign has rejuvenated her.

Her family sitting together enjoying a home-cooked meal is one thing Cathleen Incorvia said she didn't want to lose because of her rheumatoid arthritis.

Diagnosed in her mid-30s, Incorvia said the pain from RA can be overwhelming - when she's getting ready for the day, at work as a registered nurse and at the end of the day when exhaustion takes over.

Incorvia was diagnosed eight years ago but said she had been dealing with pain for a lot longer.

Despite the pain, she wants to continue to be a mother and wife, providing for her family. RA has made that difficult, and she works extra hard to get dinner on the table.

"I wanted to continue that, no matter where I am at," she said.

The recent campaign "I Can with RA in the Kitchen," sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb and the Arthritis Foundation, is helping her do just that.

Sandra Lee, from The Food Network, has lent her cooking tips, which she calls, "semi-homemade," with 70 percent of the ingredients store-bought.

The www.ICanWithRA.com Web site includes tips for RA patients so they can continue to enjoy cooking. They include: buy precut vegetables; don't carry a pot filled with water - put it on the stove and then use a smaller pitcher to fill it; and use pots and pans with two handles to distribute the weight more evenly between the hands and wrists.

The tips allow someone with RA to cook meals without extra pain from tedious work and unnecessary strain.

Incorvia said she found a lot of helpful hints on the site, some she can't believe she didn't think of before because they make good sense.

"A lot of their tips helped. I am very happy with the campaign," she said. "I feel rejuvenated about my disease; this has helped me a lot."

The campaign was launched in February, and nurse practitioner Patricia Daul, executive director of Clinical Services, Buffalo Infusion Center, in Amherst, has helped educate people about the disease.

Daul was chosen by the "I Can with RA in the Kitchen," campaign managers to talk about the campaign and the disease in New York City.

Interviewing for four hours, Daul said she did 20 TV shows as well as print interviews. There she met Lee.

"Personally, it's been so flattering to meet and work with Sandra Lee," she said, adding that Lee has been extremely generous with her time and commitment.

Ironically, the two have very similar appearances. Daul said Lee commented that they looked like the Bobbsey twins.

Daul has been treating patients with RA for 17 years and has been a registered nurse for 25.

She said the campaign has been wonderful in bringing the issues of the disease to light.

"This is really a wonderful opportunity to reach out to people," she said, adding that 1 percent of the population suffers from RA.

Women make up 75 percent of patients, and while most are diagnosed after the age of 40, an RA patient as young as 2 has been treated at the Buffalo Infusion Center.

In her years of work, Daul said she found that women ignore the symptoms and pain and just work through it. Many are diagnosed very late into the disease, which leads to the common association that RA patients are elderly and crippled.

RA is one of more than 100 types of arthritis. It is an auto-immune disease that attacks tissue, especially in joints. While there is no cure, there are treatments that slow the progression and ease the pain, including Bristol-Myers Squibb's RA treatment drug, Orencia, which Daul administers to her patients.

The Web site has an RA assessment tool that Daul encourages anyone with joint pain, or morning stiffness lasting more than an hour, to fill out. Also, many RA patients describe a pain that feels like "walking on stones."

They should print out their survey and take it to their doctor to help create a better picture of what they are dealing with, she said.

"If we get people treated early, we can slow the progress. Hopefully it can prevent crippling, and patients can continue functioning and working," Daul said.

Lee, a star on the Food Network, has a personal connection to the campaign.

"RA made cooking difficult for my grandma, and I recently met with people who also experience the same challenges because of their RA," said Lee. "My grandma developed shortcuts and other ways to continue cooking, and her resourcefulness inspired me to offer recipes and tips that may help people with RA who find it difficult to do things like prepare meals for their families or to host a small dinner party with friends."

Lee's popular show, "Semi Homemade Cooking," is designed to make cooking easier, and she uses that in the RA campaign.

"One of our goals is to help make cooking easier for people with RA, to help them do the things they need and want to do in the kitchen and participate in life's little celebrations," Lee said. "Even if they have RA, we want to inspire them to say, 'I can with RA.'"