Newly Diagnosed W/ Question | Arthritis Information

 

Hello,

I'm 30 years old and was recently diagnosed with RA earlier this year. The Methotrexate is helping a little bit but I'm still having some mild issue other than joint pain. Has anyone else experienced chest pain and extreme fatigue? My chest hurts all the time (sharp and burning) near my sternum and goes through to my back, plus I feel like I'm suffocating when i lay down on my back. Some days I can barely stay awake for more than an hour. Does anyone else with RA have chest problems?

Any ideas/comments will be greatly appreciated.Have you told this to your doctor?  If not, you should call him/her.  This could very well be costochondritis which is annoying but not fatal.  However, it's not a good thing to ignore any chest pain.

Thanks for the reply. I'm going to try to see my doc next week. extreme fatigue is probably the worst part of the disease to me. As for your chest pain, if it feels way better when you lean forward, hie the to the doctors or ER NOW -- pericaridits is another thing that can happen and it is very serious.For starters...welcome to the board and well done piping up to ask questions.

And secondly lets bust a few RA 'myths'...everything you are describing is RA. Remember it is not a joint disease but an auto immune disease where our immune systems become overactive and start attacking our bodies with extra inflammation often in the joints and muscles but in many other ways also.

RA symptoms can include any of the following: pain of varying types and intensities in our muscles, joints even my skin gets sensitive and sore. It can cause problems with our eyesight including night blindness. It can affect your speech through inflammation affecting the brain and it gives us concentration and focus problems. This can effect the ability to read, work and complete any task that requires basic focus. Some days this is worse than others. RA also makes us stiff and inflexible. It can effect your appetite. Your sleep also,  though this is often pain related. Often we have crazy body tempretures and can be hot and cold all at the same time. Our glands can get swollen, particularly in our throat from our body fighting all the inflammation, sometimes this can be so bad it makes swallowing difficult. This is definitely challenging when you have to swallow medication.

Often we seem to be partial to either sinus infections or thyroid problems on top of the RA stuff.

Then you have the chronic fatigue to deal with, this comes with the RA. Our bodies are fighting off all this extra inflammation all the time and we get chronic fatigue as a very real symptom. Sometimes we can't stay awake and we fight it madly but our bodies go into shut down as anyone's with chronic fatigue does. Many of us find the fatigue the hardest to deal with. It's easier to fight the pain, the stiffness, the swelling...but the fatigue takes over and it's hard to battle with it's phantom nature.

Other symptoms may be our fine and gross motor skills are effected. Sometimes we fall for no reason at all. You may not be able to use a knife and fork at times. Doing the simplest thing becomes a logistical challenge.

Then there is the depression that most of us struggle with. This is related to living in chronic pain. Usually as the pain increases so does the depression. When the pain stabilizes so does the depression. It's not clinical but it is very, very real and something we must deal with as part of the RA challenge.

RAer's are either seropositive or seronegative. This simply means that seropositives have something show us in a blood test called the Rheumatoid Factor and seronegatives don't. In my observation, seronegs are as many as seropos's. If you're seroneg though, it has probably taken longer to diagnose you. This often means by the time a seroneg is treated there disease is often more out of control than a seropos's.

There are also three distinct Types of RA. Types 1's & 2's tend to only have their hands and feet effected, many more of us though are 'poly' - many joints.

Everyday I have pain from my nose to my toes - joints and muscles included. Yes, I have chest pain. My boobs even hurt and if I lay a hand on my skin at times I can often feel the warmth of the extra inflammation underneath my skin, in the muscle. And yes, I have had breathing/chest issues which have turned out to be RA.

Even though that chest pain is probably RA - since it is in your chest like everyone else here I would be getting that checked out in case of other complications like heart issues. Best to eliminate that than not.

I hope that gives you an idea about how diverse the symptoms of this disease can be and I have not even mentioned everything.
Chest pains, Got to the ER ASAP In the beginning it can be hard to decide--heart attack or RA, so if you are unsure go to ER. Saying that Sternum pain is common if you have RA in your ribs or inflammation in the cartilege connected to the ribs. It can go back to where it attaches to your spine too.

Sounds to me like you need additional medications to stop the disease. You might want to read up on the TNF's so that there isn't any delay in treatment. The doctor might also increase your MTX.

Glad you have an appointment next week. Sorry.       Thanks Everyone!!!!I often have inflamation in my breast bones and that causes chest pain. It's painful but not cause for an ER visit. It's scary until you're sure what it is though and if it's not that it could be serious and should be looked at right away to determine exactly what it is. If it's determined to be inflamation related; ice and heat both help. Is it painful to push on your breast bones? In the sternum area? If so it's likely just inflamation and an adjustment in medication might be in order. Even an increase of one MTX pill a week could fix that problem. I have had chest pain like you describe. Initially my dr told me that if it lasts 5 minutes I need to go to the ER. But now that my RA is under better control I have it far less often. It does feel pretty scary. I think some drs have their patients checked out for heart problems when this happens but mine did not.
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