Sorry to hear about the arthritis. I surely hope you don't think we're using mouses, I know some people who did in the past and were still amazing but it makes my hand/arm hurt just thinking about it!
Tablets specifically made for drawing wouldn't be that much different than using paper and pencil, I imagine you could totally do it if it were something you were into. Wacom has some great tablets at different price points and unless things have changed, are arguably the best on the market. With that being said, if you don't get one with a screen, it's very hard to get used to and I gave up when I got my first one, I didn't revisit it for like a year.

You'll also have the learning curve of using photoshop or whatever software you choose to use, personally I use Paint Tool SAI for drawing and Gimp for graphical applications; Gimp is free and Paint Tool SAI is cheap (in comparison to photoshop), these two programs offer great features and (almost) make photoshop an obsolete purchase. Might be something to look into if you want to explore your artistic side a bit more.