We’re coming down to the wire, that moment when desperation hits as you’re looking for just one more thing, and have no idea of what it should be. I’d like to humbly suggest Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis: Tools for Treatment, Side Effects and Pain, the first in the series, as a gift option for a number of people in your life.

For instance:

Your partner/spouse. When you have RA, your entire family has RA. It’s important that your partner understands this disease that is so much a part of your life and sometimes, it can be hard to start talking. Use Your Life with RA as a conduit to conversations that can help bring you closer, facing this disease together as a couple. Read the book together, one chapter at a time, and discuss how it applies to you (or maybe not applies at all). I know of one couple who reads it together in bed before they go to sleep at night. I think it’s adorable, although perhaps not conducive to a restful sleep. If there is time early in the day, I’d go for that, and choose snuggling for just before sleep.

Your rheumatologist. Your rheumie knows everything there is about your disease, but do they know what it’s like for you to live with it? Your Life with RA can help them understand your concerns about treatment, your experience of side effects from the medications they prescribe, and your worries about how to deal with pain. Giving them a copy of the book will help them understand the reality of life with RA from the perspective of someone who lives with it. It can also be a conversation starter, helping you to communicate more effectively with your doctor.

Someone just diagnosed with RA. Getting a diagnosis of RA can be a scary and overwhelming place to be. Your Life with RA can help a newbie, answering questions they may not have had a chance to ask their rheumatologist, or which they hadn’t thought of yet. It can help them calm the new-to-RA nerves, and begin to find a way to get a handle on this life with a chronic illness. It can also help them laugh about it, as a laugh at my crazy stories of experiences with side effects, or weird ways to deal with pain. Laughing is an important part to getting back control of their life.

That acquaintance who insists you can cure your RA by juicing. How many times have you wished that you could find a way to get through the torrent of words describing the latest cure? Because we all know that whether it be juicing, fasting, or an odd substance from the Brazilian rainforest that no one quite knows what is, if it only were that easy, we’d all be doing it. Hand them Your Life with RA, and walk away with a satisfied smirk.

Yourself. If you haven’t read the book before, why not treat yourself this Christmas? You may find tips on managing side effects and pain that you haven’t tried before, or maybe you have a question about treatment that it can answer. If you already have a copy in paperback, why not get it in e-book format, or vice versa? It’s your friend on the couch, supporting you through this life with RA, right by your side.

Can you think of someone else who needs Your Life with RA?