Not in my case. In 1999 I became ill with what turned out to be legionnaires and I was in ICU...it began with pneumonia but doc thought that it was just a cold. A few months after that I developed what turned out to be Scleritis (immune sysmem attacking the sclera of the eye) and I've been down hill from there.

I've never had a flue shot

I have a thing for adding an e after everyting..eee. Flu...flu...flu

I have two suspicions about mine. Either the "trauma" of ankle surgery. Or a really bad bout of bronchitis shortly thereafter. Probably neither, but I had a hard time with both and never felt fully recovered from either. Bad fatigue, aches and pains, etc.

I have psoriatic arthritis which is similar to RA, The psoriasis started after my sister was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. So I think the stress of that triggered the psoriasis and then the PS arthritis

Mine spun off after the birth of my triplets.... you could say it was a stressful physical event.:) I hate the pain, but love my girls.

Mine was triggered by the death of my father and the last year it's been all downhill...

I believe mine was due to extreme stress also. No other explanation for it and it took me out over night from healthy as a horse to an invalid. Couldn't keep me down though! I'm a fully functioning person that just happens to have to take a lot of toxic drugs to stay that way.

Yep. My RA was diagnosed 3 weeks after a tetnus shot. My father's Grave's disease was diagnosed 3 weeks after a flu shot. My cousin was diagnosed with MS 3 weeks after a flu shot as well. Someting about vaccines and my family genetics just doesn't mix...I'll never ever have another one.

Marital stress

I started with asthma after a bad car accident. After struggling for years, I was put on allergy shots. Then I developed RA. I was told the allergy shots might have triggered it. Hard to know. My life is always stressed, even when I am not doing much. Raising 4 kids and working full time was probably an issue. LOL

I forgot to add - I hadn't had a flu shot for 15 years. The 3rd year I had them, I got the flu 7 times, the last time I had to be hospitalized. The doc told me to get a flu shot. I told him I had one. He said never have one again. I haven't. Guess what? I have never had the flu again. Seems strange!

To this day I am still not sure what triggered my RA. I was 12 when my symptoms started and they progressed very slowly. It may have been stress, as this was around the time that one of my older brothers passed away.

I was hit by a car, as a pedestrian, on the shoulder of a highway by a car going about 60 mph. I had gotten out of my car to help someone who had had an accident when another car slid off the road and hit me. I broke my pelvis, leg and foot. Although I consider myself lucky to be alive, the aches never went away. The RA flared from there. It took me a while to realize it wasn't from the accident. Pregnancy a few years later took it to a whole new level.

The body isn't made to withstand the kind of impact and stress mine was put through.

I'm very glad to be alive, but I hate RA. :-)

I had flu shot then got sore throat & 2 weeks later started to get some random sore joints that I couldn't explain. Three months later hospitalised with mycoplasma pneumonia. One month later crippled with RA & diagnosed.

In my mind the trigger for my RA was the flu shot - no history of RA or auto-immune disease in my family.

I won't be having another flu shot & don't want my kids to get them.

Mine started in 2000 with the birth of my daughter but I was not diagnosed until 2006.