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I'd like to hear about how some others were feeling when they realized something was wrong with them.  Do you look back & see where you had symptoms all along, and just lived with them? 

Can anyone describe some earlier symptoms. 

THANKS!

 

milobean38824.679224537I had nerve entrapments of my thumb and shoulder one year before diagnosis.  That is when you get tingly sharp nerve pain zinging down the nerve distrubions.  I also noticed that my energy level was not quite what is usually was, I just felt that I knew something was different, I thought it was old age.  When I developed a severe onset of joint pain and fatigue over a 1-2 week period one year later, all tests showed I had RA. First time I realized something was wrong was when I was at the gym and my shoulder was really sore.  It was so bad that I ended up going to see my doctor about it.  He figured I had just done something at the gym that caused the pain.  It eventually went away, but returned soon after but this time in the other shoulder.  Shortly after that I was in the hospital for surgery (not related to the shoulder pain) and right after the surgery I was in agony from the pain in different joints.  After that I went to my doctor for tests and that's when I found out I had RA.I've had various pains in joints and muscles for many years. My first real recollection was at 30 having severe back problems lifting my baby. For the next 20 years I had episodes of back pain, leg and hip problems, various problems with bursitus and tendonitus. I got stiffer and stiffer. Sometimes I had TMJ problems that would resolve themselves. Once they thought I was having a heart attack because I had pain down one arm and acrss the chest. Turned out to be a cervical problem. To make a long story short, I had been diagnosed with OA and fibro. Then I  got throat lesions that wouldn't go away.  All those years the blood work was normal. About a year and a half ago I had skin cancer and was extremely tired. Icouldn't sllep at night.  At that point, The rheumatologist said ,"Am I missing something". Finally the rheumatoid factor was positive and I got diagnosed with RA in addition to Sjogren's and the already diagnosed OA and fibro.I'm 59 now, so it took a long time.

I was missdiagnosed most my life, had it as a child.

Went in for lower back pain, said it was cuz i had crooked tailbone & to live with it and don't do situps.  Went in for leg pain, said growing pains, went in for fluid in breathing, said bronchitis but was actually inflammation in my lungs.

Only this last year at age 33, I started with a swollen hip that actually stopped hurting.  But it spread to one knee and finger by last summer, then by Christmas it was in the feet, knees, wrists, 2 fingers, shoulders, neck, sinuses, lower back etc. in full deep flairs that i couldn't even roll over in bed or put my legs on the bed without husband's help.

They say I have RA, but i think it's something else that's related.  Growing up, they gave me antibiotics every time i got a problem and it always took away the pain for about a year's time.

My R Factor said many numbers all 3 times from 122 - 530something.

When a young child the Dr.'s attrubuted my pain to allergies and being  hypochondriac, plus I was an active child so it was the usual aches and pains an dI was dx as being a bit of a sensitive child. That went on for years till I was hospitalized at Cleveland Clinic for a stomach disorder and lost 40 lbs.in High School. I weighed in at 93 pounds at 5'6".They said I was anorexic. Then an intern noticed my trigger finger during an examination and they x-rayed it and found I had severe arthritis. They prescribed asprin/ascriptin. My stomach problems worsened, they attributed to anorexia. I lived in chronic constant pain but never complained because they said I was hypochondriac and anorexia, so it was ignored anyway.

Fast forward to in my 30's.......I began to form these huge bumps on my hands, the Dr.s didn't know what it was.YEar after year, Dr. after Dr. Frustrated,  I took the initiative and walked into a hand surgeon one day  and made an appt. to have them removed because they were so painful. 5 hand sugeries later the hand surgeon sent me to who is now my Rheumatologist. The rest is history.

I had spent my entire life with this pain and the unknowing and misdiagnosis. DO I blame the physicians, nope. I was so young they never even considered it. Nowadays, they are more aware and have more treatments for arthritis, Rheumatoid and fibro.

It was nice to know I was not a hypochondriac nor anorexic. But I grew up thinking I was and told I was. Needless to say I am very picky of who my Dr.'s are, and often question them and my treatment..........I guess they have to realize where I am coming from to appreciate the extent of my thinking.

I am very fortunate now because I have an RD who listens and also a PCP that listens and they both respect my opinions and decisions.I am 48 will be 49 in May. I probably have a bit of a different take on all this Rheumatoid stuff than the average person due to my circumstances.

I've always had twinges here & there. The first really bad thing happened about 20 years ago - sudden, sharp pain in my feet. It went away. My elbow went out & had to be put in a cast. My jaw froze. Two years ago, I had terrible pain in my feet and couldn't walk, but the podiatrist said it was plantar fasciitis (and it might have been)There were always signs, but nothing too bad until last October, when, over the course of about 2 weeks, my hands & feet started swelling and hurting. By December, I was almost helpless.

Unlike so many, my doctor diagnosed me right away and sent me straight to an RD, who confirmed it. Unlike so many, I was always very healthy, except for the few incidents, which all could easily have been joint issues, but not RA.
I've had problems with my joints since I was a young kid. When I was about 6 or 7, I started to limp on my right leg. At first it wasn't too bad but it got worst. My parents took me to the doctor's and he put me in a cast to stabilize the knee joint. I got all kinds of attention. After they removed the cast, I was okay for a couple of months and then the pain started again and it kept getting worst. This time I was half walking on the leg and half dragging it. My mother thought that I was doing it for attention and would yell at me if I said that it hurt. So I learn to live with the pain. In the meantime, my walking was getting really bad with the leg turning out to my side.
   To make a long story short, one of my mother's friends convince my parents to take me to this orthopedic surgeon. He discover that the hip was slipping out from the joint. A month of traction and then a pinning of the joint with 3 very long pins drove down the middle of the joint to hold it together. They never found out what cause this.
    So over the years, everytime my joints would hurt, I would just chalk it up to my hip and having the limited range of motion. Guess it wasn't all from the hip as I now have trouble with my feet, ankles, knees, wrists, etc.


   Marisa The first really noticeable side effects were in my feet in the morning.  they were stiff when I first woke up, but I thought I was just stiff.  I didn't realize it was the onset of RA.  I gradually got more and more symptoms for many months until I was barely able to walk and in serious misery.  I couldn't lift a hair brush most days.

I am now in my first month of treatment and doing much better and on my journey of finding my medication balance.  I hope to find it soon!

Somewhere else in the forum I said that my first symptoms were not being able to see. But in actuality, there were a series of things that showed what direction my body was headed in.

I had several inflammatory diseases: asthma, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disears, irritable bowel. Then about 2-3 years before the eyes went whacky, I would have a horrible time in the summers here in AZ. It seemed that my body just soaks up the heat to where I feel like it is a furnace. I started getting this rash, blister kind of thing going on that no one really seems to want to address. At first, I thought it might be Lupus. I do turn very red in the sun across my face. If I get caught out in the heat, I deteriote very quickly and that's when my heart and lungs have become involved. Other strange things happen. Once my eyes started bleeding like straight out of stigmata (no I wasn't having religious experience). It scared the hell out me. Seems that is more related to Sjogren's.

But the pattern all seems to be about inflammation. When I stressed, I can feel the inflammation rise. I have had tremendous amounts of stress to deal with. I just blow those stress charts off the wall with life changing events. Wish I one of those meditating, calm types with tremendous self control. But that doesn't describe me.

Has anyone else had these kinds of problems as well?

I started out in my early twenties with general joint pain and stiffness, especially in the hands. About a year and a half ago I started having chronic fatigue. Then in sept of last year I started getting pain in my feet, but I was always able to get rid of it. At the end of Jan I had another episode but it got worse and I could barely walk. I finally gave in and went to the RD and got an official dx and meds. I always suspected RA b/c it runs in my family but I swore I would never get on chemo drugs. Of well--

I was not in good shape, most went away when i got pregnant at 20.

Wow shan, that is weird. I had chronic bronchitis, and really awful strep infections at least one to two times per year. The last time that I has either of them was 10 years ago when I got prenant with my first kid. My RA symptoms popped up after my second child was born. They really started getting worse about 1 1/2 years ago. Since then I have had strep throat and bronchitis again too.  Very very interesting. coinicidence??? hhhhmmmmm...I also didn't have any problems with RA until after my second child. I never had any strep infections but I did have problems with bronchitis.

Crunchy....

Very odd, i have my first throat infection in that amount of time, my kid is now 12.  The year she was born was the last time i had strep throat and i had it 7 times!  They cleared it up with meds but it came right back.

I lived in Fresno CA at the time and the pollution was said to be what caused it, as a child i lived up in Seattle WA and the pollution, pollen, molds from rain etc. were what i think caused those.

Now I live in the middle of nowhere in Louisiana and it is wonderful!  Hardly any pollution whatsoever, lots of trees, some pollen, but been doing ok.

But with the meds i am on, no wonder i got the throat thing today.

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