Well, I'm not sure how long I've actually had RA for. I was dx this past January. For the last 5-6 years, I've been achy and sore but nothing I could put my finger on, so to speak. I had many sprains and developed a rare thing called reflex sympathetic dystrophy which required many spinal injections. Not sure if that is related to the recent dx or not.
A couple of years ago, I wanted to start a family. I had several miscarriages in a row with no explanation. Went through the whole fertility work up and fertility drugs and everything. All in all, I lost 5 babies.
While going through the treatments last summer, my hands swelled up and I hurt all over. They kept saying it was just all the hormones I was on. Than I got pregnant, with twins. I had major swelling and pain in my joints but they said it was because I was carrying twins. I was so happy to be pregnant, I didn't question it. That was last September.
Right after I found out I was pregnant, my eyes turned bright red and hurt like hell. Went to the optholomogist. They first thought it was an infection but when it persisted, they realized it was chronic inflammation, called uvieitis. I was put on steroid eye drops.
I lost the pregnancy in December and my body got really awful. Everything swelled and I could hardly move and I hurt so bad. They docs just kept telling me I was depressed!!!  Well, ok, I WAS depressed, I just had lost twins at 13 weeks but I KNEW something else was wrong!
They finally dx the RA In January. Apparently, ra tends to subside a bit when pregnant, they don't know why, they suspect it may be due to the increase in progesterone. But, it tends to flare really bad after pregnancy.
The classic symptoms are symmetrical swelling and joint pain. That means, if your right hand hurts, so does your left hand. My hands, feet, knees and hips are the worse. My neck is constantly stiff and so is my back. The swelling gets so bad some days, I can barely put on shoes. In fact, my shoes are Velcro so I can adjust for the swelling each day.
I'm always tired and never have any energy. I just always feel unwell. I'm usually the stiffest in the morning and found doing gentle stretches first thing to be very helpful. Hot showers and hot wax treatments help.
It's been a big battle for me to get this under control. I currently switched reumy's because I felt they were not treating it aggressively enough. I'm in between treatments right now, waiting for one drug to get out of my system to start another.
If you wish, I can go into the treatment options as well for you.
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Taking it one day at a time.....
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