Megan,
The onset of your disease sounds so much like mine that it almost sends a chill. I have been diagnosed with RA for 16 years now. I am 31, and, according to my doctors, have managed to do really well (very little X-ray damage and no deformity) without having taken any MTX or Enbrel-type drugs.
Sleep is great for you. I never did enough of it in the early years of my disease (so amped up on prednisone all the time) and I think you pay a price with RA for not sleeping enough. That being said, 12 hours of sleep sounds a bit excessive and really inconvenient for your schedule. My advice is, rest when you're tired, continue to eat well and take care of your body (listen to it), but also look for supplements that might help you have more energy.
Have you checked into the possibility of taking more B vitamins or potassium? If you are on MTX, it interferes with your folic acid. Your doctor can talk with you about that and prescribe supplemental folic acid, which is a really important nutrient.
Caution: B-complex vitamin supplements are going to contain folic acid. Your doc would want to carefully monitor your folate intake -- so most of the B-complexes available you might not be able to take. But maybe you could (with some careful study and reading and working with your doctor) find a way to take a balanced array of the other B vitamins. Your symptoms also made me think you can have a potassium deficiency, which would make you thirsty and tired.
After not taking a B-complex vitamin for about a year, during which I felt exhausted, lethargic and unable to make commitments for social activities or work, I started taking B vitamins again in a formula called NeuroHelp Essentials (available on the Internet) and some days, even with some flare of my disease going on, I have so much energy that I feel almost hyper. I can move around much more quickly now and don't feel like I've got a brick tying down every limb. And that is a great feeling, compared with how I felt a few months ago, which was half-alive.
One thing I recommend to all people taking prescription drugs for RA is to check out the side effects of these supplements and the nutritional deficiencies they can cause. All drugs cause some nutritional deficiency or another. Dr. Vagnini’s Side Effects Bible can be helpful. Also, message boards like this one are helpful for finding information that you might not get from your doctor.
I wish you well with your RA and your life and encourage you to avoid stress, and keep plugging to find things and people that will help you. Don't let the turkeys get you down. (Turkeys, as you know, can masquerade as bosses, friends and signficant others. :)
-bsprt
thank you for your advise. I've been really down the last few weeks and I've decided to see my doc, which I haven't done in about 3 years. I'm going to get a full check up and some lab work done to make sure everything is ok. Thanks for the support!!!