Hello TipToeTam and welcome to DS. I am sorry to read you have RA :( and hope you are getting some good safe help! My coping skills some days are ok and some days not lol I just try to keep my mind on other things with lots of venting in between LOL

Hello and welcome. RA is a tough and lifelong disease. I'm sorry you've had to deal with it already almost your whole life. I'm 59 with very severe RA for 4 yrs and none of the biologics have worked out for me. I'm bedridden with a painful flare right now waiting to see if imuran will provide any relief. For coping I've found meditation to be a great help. I meditate several times a day. It doesn't take the pain away but it has changed how I deal with the pain and disability. I had biofeedback training for pain management which really furthered me along in my meditation skills. It's something you might want to look into. Good luck to you

CountryGal22 Thank you for writing back. I know what you mean about some days are manageable and others are not. My Pain level is wacky some days, one hour my knees will hurt and the next hour my hips hurt and so on. It gets so aggravating but I can't let it bring me down because I would be miscible if I did. Thank you again. How has Daily Strength working for you, does it help you? Thank you for your time

poolgirl Thank you for writing back. I have tried meditation, Some days my pain is bad and I try to breath and take my mind off it, I am learning to knit. I think that might be good exercise. Im sorry to hear that you are bedridden. You seem to have a positive look on things.How does daily strength work for you, Thank you for your time.

You are very welcome tiptoetam16 and glad I saw your reply to me here :) We really need notifications here because the only ones that get notified on replies is the OP. I know if you are like me if one area of the body doesn't hurt another area will and only hope both don't hurt at the same time even though many times they do :( I have met some great real friends here at DS that support me regularly as I do them and that is what DS has done for me :) Thank you, too, for reading :)

Welcome Tam

This is a good group. Many caring people. I like the meditation thing the best. I'm 51 and was diagnosed at 50. After 10 months of misdiagnosing and waiting (HMO's). As far as pain...now that the MTX injections have kicked in I am almost pain free. I have background pain or pain if I do more than I should. I guess that's a mini flare. I work at home and my meditation is pulling a chair from under the porch into the sun and just sitting there for a while. Have to get out of the office. I been dealing with depression last couple of weeks. Depression is new to me. Never had it. I'm a mental mess as well. As many of us know this is a lonely disease. I hope you find comfort. The best comfort is just knowing others know how you feel and you have a place here.

Hi, Tam, welcome!

I'm one of the lucky ones and I mention this just to demonstrate that there IS hope. I'm in RA drug controlled remission with MTX and Humira. It took quite a while to get here. I was diagnosed in my early 40's....am 25+ years into this disease.

Think positive. Lots of medical innovations being tested.

What's your biggest complaint at this time? Sometimes if you identify that, you can work towards resolving it. For example, right now my chief complaint is muscle weakness. I know that I can help build it up by joining an exercise group, and I hope to in the next couple weeks. I took a nasty fall yesterday and it was a good wake up call that I need to be proactive.

So what's your chief complaint?

Hello again tiptoptam. I'm a relatively new member on DS myself. I have found it helpful both in reading other people's posts and contributing if I have something to add as well as posting a few questions myself. It's good to have a group of people you can discuss things with. Hope you find this site helpful as well

Btw I think knitting is a great idea. I was knitting a lot before my hands and wrists got too bad. I'm hoping things improve enough with the imuran so I can go back to it :)