Sick? | Arthritis Information

I remember being "sick" when I was a kid, but mostly tonsalitis, tummy aches, being tired all the time, and fevers for no reason. I do not ever remember being sick, sick.

I am one of those... that if the stomach virus is going around, everyone in my house and around me will get it but me. FIL at one time thought I was the carrier. *shrugs shoulders*

I have only been sick, sick a few times in my life. Those were when I was preggo with my daughter, pnamonia from standing out in the cold while waiting for the school bus with a wet head. What? I could not go to school with oily hair... I have oily hair when I wake up even if I shower 2-3 hours before.

Heck I did not even get the side effects of MTX, Arava and a few other meds that most people that take them tend to get.

I was just wanting to know, if any of you hardly ever got sick before you had RA or even now that you do have RA?

Lemme try to remember that far back lol. I'm old ya know lol. No, I wasn't real sick before the RA hit bad. Now that it has, I think I pick up every stupid little germ the girls bring home from school.

No, I was never sick. Like you, I rarely catch colds or flu or stomach problems. I rarely missed work for an illness - - but now have missed some work twice in the past week for RA. My mother had RA for 40 years, but she was basically very healthy otherwise.

I was never ill before RA. I used to get the common cold once a year and a bout of hayfever but nothing to go to the doctor with, now i am on first term name basis with my doctor and the receptionists ( they even know what biscuits i like with my coffee)Hmmmmmm. I never got sick with anything growing up , my brothers would have strep and I wouldn't even catch it. I did have some allergies. I had a lot of "growing pains" in my legs. Was are immune system working overtime when we were growing up????When I was younger I caught the occasional flu and cold. 11 years ago when I had a stroke I decided to take a really good look at how I was taking care of my self.

I started eating lots of fresh fruits , veggies , chicken, fish and never miss my vitamins. Also, took fresh flaxseed oil daily in a smoothie with bluebeeies soy and strawberries. I get flu and pneumonia shots. I havent had a cold for this past 11 years.
Only thing is I had a touch of the flu about 5 months before my RA showed up. Still havent had a cold.

My husband has been deathly sick with a cold this past week and I still havent caught anything from him.

I was always sick. But only after I was dxed. Bronchitis, Pneumonia, Flus etc etc etc. It sucked. LoL my rd says that it is very commom for ra patients to be very healthy otherwise and it is not unusual for them to have no medical history of having ever been sick. She says this helps her diagnose ra. go figure!I think I did quite well. A couple bouts of Bronchitis and 1 pnumonia in 50 yrs. My problem was Strep. I have had that in every, and I mean every, orifice on my body. I happen to live in what this city describes as the Strep capital and due to hubby's career we could not move.

i was always sick, i got sinus infections every time the seasons changed, that and bronchitis

I was always sick a lot as a child. I caught everything. After I had my hysterectomy, my health improved immensely. Since RA, I almost never get anything that is going around. But if I do get bronchitis, I'm sunk. That one is hard to beat.

My thoughts are that since my RA never seems to be under control, my immune system is probably fighting off things. Every one else in the office could have the flu and I wouldn't get it. There are some bugs that will still hunt you done though. I went through the ER with Julie when she had her gallbladder and picked up some kind of bug that ended up making me go to the ER myself the night before her surgery.

Now, that does not explain anything.

I was always sick as a kid. My sisters used to hate it when we went anywhere cuz I always got sick. On one trip through the Smoky Mountains, my ear was pounding and started bleeding. We had to find an er in TN. I had creeping eruption when we went on vacation to Fl. A tropical fungus parasite that burrows in your skin. We went fishing and I sat on a dead log. I had 3rd degree poison ivy on the back of my leg from a fishing trip. I always had strep throat, pneumonia really bad when I was 16 and missed a month of school. Bronchitis, allergies, ear infections, sinusitis. Right after I got better from pneumonia, I got chicken pox which I had already as a little kid. My sisters used to think I made it all up until the doc confirmed it. Every little complication such as when I had an epidural when delivering daughter and had an reaction to it. I started having convulsions and my whole body was completely numb. Then I got an epidural headache (which happens in like 2% OF cases) I ended up having a csection and a headache that made me so sick I was throwing up with staples in my stomach. I couldn't even take care of my baby until 3weeks later the doc took blood from my arm and put it in my back.Had toxemia and diabetes when pregnant. The baby was on my sciatic nerve and I could be walking along and my legs would give out.That was with my 1st child my daughter. It took 6 years for my hubbie to talk me into having our son..nyquil makes me hyper...dayquil makes me sleepy...I am always the one to get anything going on..the weirder the better. I had pericarditis not once but twice. Pleurisy.

Let's not forget my latest. Golf ball sized cyst on my tailbone I had removed Feb.1st. I'm a walking talking freak of science. lol

OH yeah forgot to add I had my appendix removed right before it was getting ready to burst in Dec 04 before my ra dx in Sept 05Well, you've all certainly had more than your share!

I guess I was pretty lucky as a child - just an odd cold, chickenpox, some boils on my butt when I was about 8 0r 9 - came from an infected sand-flybite apparently. Had to go into hospital and have them lanced. Then they made up a vaccine & injected me back with it.
Yucky, I remember the District Nurse coming to my house after it healed and rubbing pure Copper Sulphate Crystals on the huge scars to burn them down, they were right in the crease. Ouch! I can feel it now, just as I can feel the kids at school laughing at me cos I had to sit on a rubber ring in the classroom when I went back to school. They called me rubber bum, and I was sooo embarrassed! LOL

Nothing much else, except I got tonsillitis regularly, and measles when I was 19 - that wasn't pleasant. All well in all depts until this hit about 4 years ago, and I'm now 61, so I didn't have a bad run at all until then. Even now, the only infections I have had since this have been an abcessed root canal, which meant extraction, and a fungal infection on my neck, which took about 3 weeks to clear.

Apart from my RA etc. I'm a pretty healthy specimen these days!

Take Care
never got sick before RA and never get sick after RAI was never sick as a child. Just the usual childhood illnesses.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the sinus infections, and ear infections, and bladder infections, and kidney infections.

But like I said, I was a HEALTHY little baby! Just a sick toddler/kid. *shrugs*

I never got sick when I was child. Only two times I had flu when I was 20 and 22 years old. After that nothing except Anamia I had twice in last 6 years.

Soooooo.......................

Correct me if I'm wrong here but....it SEEMS:

People who had RA set in as adults, were OVERLY healthy children...

And kids who were dxed with JRA were sick sick sick little kids.

Interesting.

No, Katie... I was not sick much when I was a kid, nor before being on Humira. I have recently just been getting infections, but those are probably from the humira. I had a sinus infection in December, and 4 bladder infections which both gyno and pee-pee doctor say could have been caused by the humira.

I do not know if tummy aches, fatigue and just plain not feeling well when I was a kid would be considered sick. I think those are considered common symptoms of kids with JRA, but I am probably wrong, like usual... no wonder I do not give out advice on here

LMAO. I'm kidding. Okay, I was wrong!

Well why the frick was I so sick :(

I was never very sick as a child. I remember chicken pox, but not much else except bad hay fever.

The weird part is I had "growing pains" that would keep me up all night crying, my mom did not take me to the doc for them, she knew what it was. haha. The other was stomach pains that would keep me up crying all night. She did take me to doc for that and he told her it was all in my head.........right.

After the birth of both my sons (2 years apart) I had really bad pain in my wrists and they would suddenly collapse and I would drop things. I was afraid of dropping my babies. So doc gave me cortisone shots in both wrists. THis happened about 3 months after both my kids were born. Always had very painful feet with knots all over them, but just figured, my feet hurt.

Never suspected anything out of the ordinary until 3 years ago when I was 51. My hands had swollen up so bad I could not use them for anything. The back of my hands had knots that swelled about two inches high and caused my fingers to claw. The pain was so unbearable I had my husband take me to ER in the middle of night. They of course said it was probably tendonitis. As you are all familiar with, things got progressively worse. I went to my pcp who called a friend he went to med school with and got me in to see his friend (RD) the same day and two weeks later was diagnosed with RA. My sister has had Lupus since she was 23 (she is 2 years younger than me), but I never even thought for a minute that I might have anything AI related.

Well, it has been a quick downhill for me. I am now on part-time permanent disablility and am grateful I can still work my measly 17 hrs a week as it makes me feel useful. I have been allergic to many of the drugs so Rituxan is just about the only thing left for me, until the new drugs in development come out. Today I feel better and I'm hopeing this w ill continue.

Sorry, for the long post, got a bit carried away remembering everything.

Thanks for letting me tell this story, don't think I have ever talked about this before.

I do not like holding babies either afraid I will drop them. When we go and visit my sister my oldest niece who just had a baby, she will make me hold her baby... she just does not understand that I am afraid I will drop him. I was even afraid to hold my son after I had him, because I had a hard time holding my daughter 6 years earlier. I am not a momma who can carry their baby around in their arms, I always wanted to, but was afraid I would drop them.