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CNN Sunday Morning

Turner Becomes an Activist in Fight Against Rheumatoid Arthritis

Aired August 11, 2002 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Actress Kathleen Turner is taking on a new role that's motivated by some painful personal experience. She's become an activist of sorts in the fight against rheumatoid arthritis.
Kat Carney has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAT CARNEY, CNN HEALTH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Legendary actress Kathleen Turner is best known for her roles in the films "Body Heat."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BODY HEAT")

KATHLEEN TURNER, ACTRESS: I like that in a man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: ... and "Romancing the Stone."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ROMANCING THE STONE")

TURNER: You...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: When I caught up with her in New York recently, Turner recalled the film that marked a turning point, not in her career, but in her health.

TURNER: I was just finishing "Serial Mom."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SERIAL MOM")

TURNER: Ladies and gentleman, the perfect meatloaf.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TURNER: I got home, and none of my shoes fit anymore, so I found myself running around with unlaced sneakers. I didn't even know, it was so painful.

CARNEY: Shortly after that, Turner found it difficult to move her arm, and turn her head from side to side. TURNER: I finally went to my GP, and said, "I think I'm dying." He took blood, he was the first one to really do a full test, as a blood scan, and said, "Well, your rheumatory factor is through the roof."

CARNEY: Further tests confirm that Kathleen Turner had rheumatoid arthritis.

Unlike osteoathritis, which results from joint wear and tear, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease of the immune system, resulting in pain in the joints and soft tissues of the body.

(on camera): When you heard rheumatoid arthritis -- what did that mean to you?

TURNER: Well, at first, I was so relieved that we had a name for it, then I got scared about, what is this going to cost me?

CARNEY (voice-over): Doctors told Turner that in addition to the excruciating pain she now lived with, the actress might also loose the ability to walk.

(on camera): I sounds like it's a very scary experience.

TURNER: It's very frightening, it's emotional frightening -- the thought of not being able to move means I cannot act, and if I can't move, I can't work.

CARNEY (voice-over): And without early treatment, many patients like Turner can end up with permanent joint damage.

Turner says that, in addition to her medication, regular exercise has made a big difference in how she feels today.

(on camera): Why did you choose to go public with your diagnosis?

TURNER: I figured that in my experience, as Kathleen Turner, with access to the heads of rheumatology in every major hospital in this country, if I couldn't get help for a year -- what in God's name was happening to other people out there.

CARNEY: Kathleen Turner's rheumatoid arthritis is currently in remission, and she's back on Broadway in the revival of "The Graduate."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE GRADUATE")

TURNER: Your mother said I should lie down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARNEY: But her greatest role yet, may be that of survivor.

TURNER: It's not a disease where you have to lie down and let it run its course -- that's the worst possible action. You can fight it, you can fight it and you an beat it.

CARNEY: And Kathleen Turner is doing just that.

Kat Carney, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Some two million Americans have rheumatoid arthritis.

COOPER: Kat Carney joins us now with more about the disease.

CARNEY: Good morning.

WHITFIELD: Good morning.

COOPER: Good morning.

WHITFIELD: It's a good thing that she would come public, so many people want to, kind of, keep that under wrap, but...

CARNEY: Absolutely...

WHITFIELD: But she's already seen how her role is going to help so many other people.

CARNEY: And like she said, it took her years to get a correct diagnosis. She would go to doctor after doctor, and they would say, "Well, you just need to buy bigger shoes, or you need surgery, or you need this," so, she really feels that by speaking out, it will help more people go get proper treatment, and...

COOPER: Is it difficult to diagnose?

CARNEY: It is very difficult to diagnose. You have to go through lots of test, and there's also a blood test that tests for the rheumatoid factor, but the presence or absence of that still doesn't necessarily mean that you have or don't have rheumatoid arthritis, and the symptoms are so similar to other disorders.

WHITFIELD: And usually you're already experiencing the pain of those symptoms before you do go to a doctor, because obviously, you don't just arbitrarily go to a doctor and say, "Hey, check me out for to see if I have rheumatoid arthritis."

CARNEY: Exactly, or if you're active, you might think, oh, you know, my joints, or this is just, you know, typical muscle pain. So, you wouldn't necessarily think it's rheumatoid arthritis, plus I think when people hear that, they think that it's an older person's disease.

WHITFIELD: Right.

CARNEY: But it's actually something that can strike people in their 20s, their 30s, and it doesn't affect mostly woman.

COOPER: And the treatment for it? CARNEY: There are lots of medications, there is movement therapy, and when Kathleen Turner was first seeking treatment, the did put her on lots of medications. She went to another doctor, who suggested movement therapy, who actually suggested that she get out and swim, even though it was very painful for her, but that movement and being in the water actually helped bring back a lot of her mobility. And you saw in the piece that she's actually working in the gym now.

WHITFIELD: Is that sort of a new advent in treatment, in that -- are people are just now starting to be encouraged to keep moving, because...

CARNEY: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: ... the pain that so many patients experience they feel like, well, there so much more debilitated, why would they want to encourage movement. And how is it that is actually maybe even reversing it, or is it just helping them feel more comfortable in their own skin?

CARNEY: Well, it doesn't actually reverse the disorder. What it does is it keeps the muscles moving, it keeps -- it's even if you or I who don't have rheumatoid arthritis, if we stop moving for a period of time, we're actually going to start to get stiff and creaky.

So, you want to keep the body moving, and you want to keep the joints loose.

COOPER: But, there's no way to actually cure it?

CARNEY: There's no cure as of yet, but research is going on. Kathleen Turner even says she's going to -- we're going to be seeing her on the Hill, she's going to be pushing for more research, more advocacy.

COOPER: And it has, I mean, do you think it's affected her career a lot?

CARNEY: Well, she said that she was very worried about coming out in the beginning. There were lots of rumors that you've asked about the medications that she were on -- that she was on, and they caused her to swell a little bit, and there were lots of rumors flying around about what the problems were.

So, she was very concerned about, A, what people would think, whether she was able to continue to work, and then she was also worried about, you know, the rumors that would go around, and then she wasn't even sure if she would be able to walk, that's what doctors initially told her.

WHITFIELD: And it's often confused with osteo, you know, arthritis, so, you know, it's up to the doctor. I mean, you're really relying on the medical professionals to tell you, you know, whether it's one or the other and the best way to treat, because the treatment is certainly going to be very different from osteo than rheumatoid. CARNEY: Very different. There's over a 100 different types of arthritis, and rheumatoid is completely different from osteoarthritis, which is when the joints kind of wear and tear and the cartilage wears away.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a disease of the immune system. So, that you're bodies own immune system starts attacking your joints and your soft tissues.

WHITFIELD: All right -- Kat Carney, thank you very much. Thanks for bringing us Kathleen Turner's story as well.

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