Just wanted to say hi and introduce myself. It is so nice to have a place to
go. I am a 45 year old mom of 5 and grama of 3. I am in the process of
getting the good old RA diagnosis. RF is 70, CRP is 28 and am waiting for
results of CCP which was a send out so will take a while to get back. But
as I have been reading, mine has not seemed to take the traditional
course that I'm reading here so I'm wondering if i'm weird or if I really
have RA. I have had very stiff joints for several years....and I feel like I
have the flu 90 percent of the time. I've blamed it on stress. It absolutely
sucks. I am a nurse and work in an acute care facility 3, 12 hour shifts a
week so I'm on my feet alot. My pain is in my feet and ankles, left wrist,
right elbow and middle finger. The painful joints do not seem to take on
a symmetrical pattern (except feet anad ankles) but the stiffness is
symmetrical in every joint of my body but does not seem to last even a
half hour in the morning, but it comes back with prolonged sitting and
inactivity etc. I do not seem to have the horrible pain that so many of you
have and I feel so bad for you. I also have alot of frontal
headaches...which is how this whole nightmare started a few years ago.
They are much better now, but I still hate even a slight one. I spent last
January(a year ago) and all last September with pneumonia. It was
horrible and each course took me a month to recover from. I figured I
just picked up something horrible from a patient at work. This is when
my doctor started checking into auto immune diseases. Oh, and then I
got a nodule on my R elbow but I picked it absolutely to death and it went
away in about 3 months....i didn't know what it was, lol. I am a nurse and
didn't have a clue....i'd never seen a nodule. So my question to anyone
who would care to share is....Did you have a slow onset like this with
minimal pain, but severe stiffness? I will say that by the end of a shift....I
cannot walk but i'm overweight and thought that was the reason. The
other thing is my doctor told me that most RA patients are not overweight
("m 70 lbs over). Also, is the pain all of a sudden just gonna hit me with
no warning? I've read and read and absolutely cannot find a pattern to
this diseae (which sucks by the way,did I already say that?.. lol) Did
anyone have those high labs? My doctor says my CRP is off the charts.
Do these labs normalize with treatment? How high is high? One last ???,
are any of you health care professionals or work at the bedside of acutely
ill patients? If so, do you worry about getting infections that are hard to
get rid of? I wonder if I need to find a new profession with this disease.
None of these answers seem to be available anywhere that I have read. I
see a rheumatologist on March 7th so I'm getting my ??? written down.
I'm hoping to hear from some of you and hear how your course has gone
and how you have coped. You know, you can have all the medical
knowledge in the world, but the true experts are the ones that live every
day with this condition and those are the people I want to talk to and hear
from and I'm so glad you are here. Thank you for this website. I hope to
hear from you throughout this lifelong ordeal.
I am new to this dreaded disease myself. I feel that I am not coping very well these days but I just got a dog to keep me company. My afected areas are my knees and my hands. I am not able to get around to well right now. My husband is gone so much of the time on business so he has hired someone to take care of our home.
You said that you are working full time. Isnt that hard for you? How lovely that you are a nurse. Do you like it?
Welcome Lorster to AI...We are very glad to have you as a new member.
I had a quick onset. Nothing like I ever experienced in my life but it took them nearly a year to DX me...Now that was a H*** of a wait to find out what was wrong.
Your symptoms sounds very similar to mine, in the beginning of the RA, only I never had any real symmetry in my joints that where hurting and neither did my pain/swelling last for 30 Min's or more, in the morning... My RA factor was + and my ESR very high and the CCP/CRP tests came back as being in place for possible RA, so on those results, they decided that I had RA. RA Factor is not a good predictor for RA. Your CRP/CCP test are probably the best tests to see if your are RA influenced. I would not at all be surprised if your prior health problems didn't push your autoimmune systems buttons and Whamo...possible RA in the making.
Being over weight is not a factor for RA and neither is being the right weight/under weight. It happens and neither is having a genetic factor a reason to have RA either. So don't let the doctor make you feel responsible if you do have RA.
Did they put you on any medicaitons for pain and swelling? Like a prescrition NSAID? I hope they did
As your treatment for RA continues, your test should come back as normalizing. If they don't they will add more medications till they can get it to normalize or as we RA er's like to say "as near normal as possible"
Don't pick those nodules "to death" you don't want to get an infection, which is easy to do for a RA patient. Remember the Autoimmune system is not working right.
Ohhh Yes, Pain/fatigue and swelling happens when it feels like it...It will not ask you if today is a good day to have pain...
Changing your career is not in the picture at this time. Alleviating the pain, so you can work is what is needed right now. Once everything comes back and the Rheumatologist looks over the test. He/she will try to put you on the right road to get you back to near normal, right away but we all have to remember that it does take time and you need to be up front with your doctor from the very beginning to truly get the best fitted treatment program for you.
I do hope that you do not have RA but if it does turn out that way, you have found one of the best support boards on the web to come to for help and friendship.
I wish you well on your journey and remember we are always here for you.
Toni
aka "waddles"
Hello fellow nurse! I'm, 42 and work as a GI endoscopy nurse. Developed RA 2 1/2 years ago. It is amzing the difference between knowing about a disease and knowing(and living) the disease! I've gone down to 25 hours a week because I was exhausted and doing nothing besides work and thats not life. The RDr. started me on Enbrel yesterday saying he thought "We could do better" than that. I'd love to get back to full time with the second kid heading to college in June. You've had the symptoms long enough that xrays of your hands and feet may show the erosions. I like solid evidence I can see. Good luck, keep us informed. Susan
[QUOTE=lorster] i work around some really nasty bugs and i
hate to further compromise my immune system but all of this is so
overwhelming as i'm sure everyone here has felt at one time or another.
[/QUOTE]
Hello!
I am taking humira and methotrexate and prednisone. All three of which will compromise your immune system. I work at a casino near Chicago.
I was scared to take them too - because I'm around a lot of people and smoke.... and everyone's always sick at work.
Amazingly, I have not had so much as a cold in the last 5 years. It's weird. A couple of the dealers got scabbies (ewwwwwww
seems like the only sickness I have is RA. That's ENOUGH = dont get me wrong.. .but taking all this stuff that compromises your immune system... it's just amazing to me ****kNOcK oN WoOD***** So - everyone is different... and the medication's side effects and stuff are scarey ... but RA is something that needs to be treated, or it will get worse, quick. I hope you dont have RA - I hope it's something that can be easily fixed. Let us know ... and WELCOME ...
woobie
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