Hi. I read that some flight attendant's RA symptoms are worse when they are in the sky at high altitudes and it made me think about when my RA started ... I didn't have RA until I flew from Chicago to New York, which is a short 2.5 hour flight ... the day after I got there, one of my ankles got really inflamed and swollen ... I had no idea what it was, but I could barely walk ... at the time, I was guessing that maybe it was a mosquito or bee sting .. and I just kept walking through the pain because I was vacationing in NY and didn't want to miss out on exploring such a great city ... but now that I think about ... could it have been the 2.5 hour flight that got my RA started? ... Do I sound ridiculous? What do you guys think?HI Cindy
I think it was just a coincidence. If you're one of the ones who are chosen to have this great disease, it can sit and wait for a while. Anything can trigger it, I'm not sure I'd blame it on the plane trip. Maybe it was something that happened right before the trip and the idleness aggrivated it. I had a friend get RA after getting fifths disease. No relationship between the two, but one triggered the other. I hope you find comfort and a great rheumy!
I agree that it's a coincidence. For most people, RA starts slowly. Now I do have a "triggering" event. I developed RA soon after the birth of my son. I was diagnosed a year after he was born.
But what caused it? I believe in my case it was undiagnosed gut dysfunction, which took place for years previously. During the year before my pregnancy, I was a vegetarian. The large amounts of grain I consumed stressed my system further, and at some point, I believe I developed leaky gut syndrome. During pregnancy, your immunity lowers so your body doesn't reject the baby, and I believe a combination of all of those things led to my autoimmune disease.
The first thing I noticed was swollen knuckles, but I thought it was from my retail job, where I unloaded large trucks weekly. After being diagnosed, I realized that when I was stiff after a 30-minute drive for months previously, waking up feeling tired, all of that was the RA. I just didn't know it yet.
I've noticed a lot of posts on the RB about people who flare when they fly - so much so I was afraid to fly out of state to see my then new AP doc - so we went a day early just in case I couldn't move the next day. I think this is more with the barometric pressure group.
A trigger is a trigger. Like SL says; it's multifactorial - and then the trigger caps it off.
Pip
I flew across country (2) times this year. Both times I have to say that I did start to flare during the flight(s) once we had been at cruising altitude for a while. The pain improved once we were back on the ground. I agree that it seems to be the barometric pressure change during the flight.