First, you are NOT lazy. I was diagnosed in June, 2012., seronegative RA, meaning my bloodwork showed I was good, not sick, nothing wrong.. I was never prescribed either of the drugs you are on. My Rheum did want me to go on prednisone, but I did not want to do that, feeling that the Celebrex was OK. First I was on methotrexate. He felt that help over 50% of his patients. It did zero for me. After a few months of no relief from that, he added a biologic, Humira. I noticed a big difference very quickly when that was added.

The Humera helped my feet, my hands not so much. I was so excited that my feet felt so much better, but the Rheum kept changing the drugs. Some would help my feet, not hands. Some would help my hands, but not my feet. Finally, I am on one that helps my feet & hands. It is not perfect. It is not what it was before I had RA. But, that is OK. For me, if this is all the better I will get, I am ok with it. My hands do not grip like they use to. If I do not pay attention, I seem to drop things a lot. I know it is because I do not have a good grip. If I am paying attention to what I am doing, things would be so much better. But, isn't that the truth about a lot of things in our life. RA or Not?

Yes, things could be worse. But, discuss this with your Rheumatologist. Make sure you have one that is aggressive, that pays attention to YOU and how YOU feel, not just blood work. After about 18 months, I became seropositive for RA. If I had a Dr that only wanted to go by bloodwork, that would have been 18 months of pain, and my disease progressing.

You are definitely not lazy, I agree with 2leftfeet here. Different drug combos work differently in everyone. It will be some trial and error to find what works.

I am not Dx'd with RA...I'm seronegative in everything.But now have a current tentative Dx of psoriatic arthritis and am on Celbrex, Tramadol, and will be starting sulfasalazine (yet to see how that will help me of course). The Celebrex and Tramadol combo makes me able to just about tolerate pain most days and get by. I have a good day once in awhile. Most days thought it's all I can do to tolerate the pain.

I went through taking Tylenol and Mobic, Mobic and Tramadol, Nabumetone alone, Nabumetone and Tramadol...and now to the combo I'm currently on. It can be very daunting knowing how active you used to be..it gets to me at times as well. But don't give up on yourself. Don't just rely on bloodwork, like was already said. If most people did that, we wouldn't get treated. Because not everything shows up in bloodwork until there is severe damage that can't be reversed. Some of the RA folks in here didn't become seropositive until years of active disease. If you don't fight for yourself, nobody will.

Thanks, 2leftfeet and Rose Tears. My blood work was strongly positive and hopefully my meds will be adjusted. I am just new to all this and still keep hoping I will get back to how I used to be before RA. You, ladies, have given me good advice to advocate for myself.

Debbie this is a great area with people that do care, will offer support, what we have experienced, and a place to vent. I am glad you found us.

When I was first dx, I could barely walk or pull my own sweatpants up! It took about four months for me to get to a spot that I felt I could function. Not ow, I have pains and minor swelling, but (knock wood) have not taken a sick day for a flare in o ver a year. For me, that's a win!

I hope things go as well for you as they did for me.

Hi Debbie, Trust me, you are not lazy. God bless you for going to work. I tire easily as well. I have been out on temporary disability so not at work since mid August. I hope to go back in January, but fear being extremely exhausted. Especially with being off from work I have only been able to accomplish a few things and even with what little I do it is tough to even do that without having to lie down and take a nap. I have been trying to figure things out and get information in case when I do go back to work if it becomes to be too much. I am also looking into retiring early. I have been on so many combos of medications and they work for a short time then stop working. So along with the fatigue and tiredness, I am in pain as well, even when taking pain medicine. My primary doctor suggested while at work try to take a nap. Is there anywhere you could do that during your lunch time? Can you work part time? Or would you want to retire? So many questions. I hope things work out for you. Please keep us posted.

Fatigue is a primary symptom of RA but my understanding is it's not as big a problem with early lupus. Lupus gets fatigue as the kidney problems kick in although my son't math teacher in high school had major brain involvement for her lupus and that gave her fatigue too but later in the disease process. I may be wrong with this so will someone who knows all about lupus please join the conversation, please?

The reason why they need to figure out which it is so that you can get the proper biologic......Benlysta is for lupus where as they have several to try for RA but the Ra ones don't work for lupus and the lupus drug doesn't help with RA. Of all the RA drugs, only the biologics help[ed with that primary Ra fatigue so you may need that to get rid of the fatigue or the lupus drug if it's lupus. So you need to figure out which it is. It can take time. But you should be able to get rid of the fatigue once you know which it is....at least for a while.

I know my fatigue had eventually overcome my biologic and I noticed that in the ads on TV for Orencia, it now adds that Orencia can halt the symptoms of Ra for 3 years...and that was how long it did for me and then slowly but surely, it is starting to come back. I thought it was because I had to stop it for surgery three times in the past 4 years but apparently, it was from the drug and the disease process and not me having to stop it. I actually felt guilty for the drug starting to fail but now I know it's the drug! Guess it's becoming time to try another drug. I'd love that 3 years of no symptoms again!

You can get there.

gentle hugs...........Jen

Debbie...it's amazing at how much this disease can change you and you fight so hard to not let it.

You are not lazy. It's the RA! I been on treatment for 6 weeks now and there are many faces of RA. Don't think of yourself as limited. Do what you can do. You will have good days and bad days.

For the first time I am experiencing waking up many times at night in pain. I wish fatigue would hit me like a wall and let me go into a sleep coma for the night. I need sleep so bad.

After getting on a biologic / Humira / a lot of the fatigue lifted as well as the pain.
I still have to pace and take naps sometimes, but it's much better. The fatigue is the hardest part of the disease.