I have never been known for my memory, so losing it hasn't caused me much stress...I have plenty of other things to worry over! I think the loss of memory is, in me anyway, directly linked to the pain. I have had pain from one sorce or another since I was 14, 35 now...so it's been awhile. About 6 years ago things escalated in hte pain department, and the Dr wouldn't give me any pain meds, because they didn't know what was wrong. Fun. They put me on anti-depressants and anxiety med, which made it easier to deal with the pain, and easier to not feel so irritable over everything, including noise. My right eye used to do these terrible twitches if I had to babysit my 3 nieces ( and my 2 kids). So I strongly advocate these meds to help us deal with what we have been given.
Proper pain control is also necessary. If you are in more pain than you can tolerate then you need to discuss this with you Rheumy.
I also carry a notebook with me, and take a list of questions with me to Dr's appointments. Otherwise I would sit there with nothing to ask or say, and not remember what I wanted to ask until later.
I hope that you feel better, and less stressed, soon!

I'm bawling! because of my forgetfulness I forgot to do something that's a major part of my job. Thank goodness I work with two wonderful friends and coworkers that have my back! Now I am really worried.

Thanks everyone for sharing with me your thoughts, suggestions and experiences. It means so much to me knowing I'm not alone in this fight.

I've 'not done' the most upsetting things with memory issues. Posted about it earlier after I was stunned to find I had forgotten being somewhere on a certain night. Hotly denying I was there until person I was talking to said something that made me think I might have been there. Although still no memory of it.

It could be the disease as like you I got a lot of sympathetic comments and stories of others' memory lapses. It really helped me and I hope you seeing you are probably pretty much the norm with memory upset will stop you thinking it is "just you".. I got tips and have taken a lot of them on board since so pretty much not forgetting so much of importance.

The nervous/anxious part strikes a cord with me. I have a hard time with frustration...it can be quite dominating.

A lot of RA sufferers are found to have fm also which, is often not diagnosed until much later on. 'Fibro fog' is a common complaint with forgetfulness, eye problems, sensitivity to noise etc. It was these same symptoms that led me to think it wasn't just RA that I had and go and be diagnosed again. Candidiasis can also be a cause which is common in 80% of population. It often flourishes in the brain so cut out or down on sugar and yeast for at least a month and see if this helps. Yeast and sugars also cause a lot of inflammation in the body so cutting back should also help your flares. Good luck! :))))

I do have a little hypothosis to add to this... before I was diagnosed with RA, I was going nuts d/t the memory loss. I'd started a new position in a different hospital, moved to a different state and was trying to get my little kiddos and hubby settled into a new life in Oregon. My brain was mush... couldn't remember if I'd brushed my teeth or not let alone 12 new pass words... ended up seeing a neurologist that did alot of blood work and my "B" levels were severely low. I started taking a double dose of B complex and amazingly my memory started to return and the words I'd left on the tip of my tongue returned. ALSO found that RA patients chronically are found to have low B levels... something to think about ladies! The Brain loves vitamin B... I hope this helps. I too am on humira, tramadol, break through prednisone, nsaids and whatever else works on pain. Good luck to you all and God Bless.