Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
Hi everyone. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and CFS about a year ago, and that was bad enough, but now a rheumatologist has told me I have positive blood-work for RA. My life was already kind of down to nothing . . .I almost never leave the house, I don't work, I feel crummy so much of the time. Mostly this has been due to being tired all the time.
But in the last two weeks things have gotten really bad. I feel swollen all over and hot, especially my hands and feet. Sometimes the pain is so bad that I can't read, watch TV, or do anything. I'm starting to see small lumps and puffiness all around my knuckles and down to my wrist. I'm scared to death. My Mom died about three years ago and she had lost total use of her hands, she couldn't walk any more, she was in awful pain. She refused to get extensive testing to see what caused her disability and her doctor said probably some kind of MS, but as I look at my own symptoms . . .what is happening to me looks so much like what happened to her.
I feel like every doctor I see diagnoses me with something different, though they are all related (also had a doc say I have chronic Lyme disease). There's no cure for any of them. The drugs they might give me seem really scary. I feel like I am getting notably worse FAST.
Any advice would be appreciated. I have an appt with the RA in a month, but should I try to move it up since I am having such bad symptoms now? What should I do about the rheumy saying I have one thing and the other doctor saying I have something else? Am I going to lose the use of my hands?
But in the last two weeks things have gotten really bad. I feel swollen all over and hot, especially my hands and feet. Sometimes the pain is so bad that I can't read, watch TV, or do anything. I'm starting to see small lumps and puffiness all around my knuckles and down to my wrist. I'm scared to death. My Mom died about three years ago and she had lost total use of her hands, she couldn't walk any more, she was in awful pain. She refused to get extensive testing to see what caused her disability and her doctor said probably some kind of MS, but as I look at my own symptoms . . .what is happening to me looks so much like what happened to her.
I feel like every doctor I see diagnoses me with something different, though they are all related (also had a doc say I have chronic Lyme disease). There's no cure for any of them. The drugs they might give me seem really scary. I feel like I am getting notably worse FAST.
Any advice would be appreciated. I have an appt with the RA in a month, but should I try to move it up since I am having such bad symptoms now? What should I do about the rheumy saying I have one thing and the other doctor saying I have something else? Am I going to lose the use of my hands?
While treatment working means you really do have (and will be tempted to quit thinking you are cured), RA, it's so nice to know what it is and that you CAN BE reasonably normal again.
To not writhe in pain = totally worth the treatment.
I can see by your avatar, you play world of warcraft, I see your little human. I play a night elf hunter on norgannon, Rarrrrr happy hunting when your feeling better! Got to get you better so you can have fun again!
Lin
I am not treating the Chronic Lyme because the doctor who diagnosed me with that wanted me to do a hardcore antibiotics treatment. Because none of the tests were at all conclusive that I really HAVE or HAD Lyme, I am reluctant to treat it aggressively, especially since I have gotten the RA diagnosis since then and, it seems to me, my symptoms look more like RA. Also, the doc who told me I have Lyme is doing a clinical trial of this aggressive antibiotic treatment and, well, I got the feeling that I might be being used as a guinea pig. I would say I was being paranoid, but my partner got the same feeling and she is a smart cookie, lol.
Anyway . . .I am going to assume right now that this is RA and treat it as such unless I get new information that makes me believe otherwise. Gosh, I feel like I have been taken to the crummy auto-immune buffet: So many choices, all of them unappealing!
Again, thanks everyone and I will check in here regularly. And I am usually more supportive than needing support, BTW . . .just not today. I feel better already just having a plan to call and try to get in earlier to the RA. :-)
Please seak treatment, and work closely with your doctor. I spent six years trying to find out what was wrong with me...and I am glad that I did not give up.
If you have a positive RA test, tell them you want treated for that, and treated quickly. I would call and see if I possibly could get in sooner..citing pain as the reason.
Best of luck!