I am sorry to hear about your rheumatoid arthritis. if it is any consolation to you at all, 2 weeks ago, while walking down one of the corridors in the hallowed halls of the state Capitol, I suddenly could not put any weight on my left foot. When the problem did not clear itself within a few hours, I drove to the outpatient clinic at the hospital where I had surgery last year. They x-rayed the ankle and assured me it was nothing more than a 'flare up' of arthritis. I did not know I had arthritis. My sympathies and prayers for you.
Good to know that God's a genius at finding a use for everything that we bumblers offer with love, like my father who so many years ago was delighted--- "Everything has a use!"--- to scatter rabbit-poopies around the roses.
I don't know how God works out this whole Rube Goldberg prayers-works-joys-and-sufferings, everything-working-together-for-the-good, communion-of-saints stuff, but really, what else can you do? Offer it up.