when did you get your first RA symptom where on the body? and how long before other joints got involved? My hands were first...then knee...then feet.how many weeks/months in between your hands and your knee? (just wondering because fr now my hands are only involved and it has been 9 months.
Hi mine started in my feet, the fat padding behind the toes! I couldn't walk. My shoes were all tight and I got bigger shoes. Took lots of asprin, etc. Went to a foot guy who said 'you have arthritis', but I didn't want to admit it. What is this stuff, I'd ask? it took me 5 years to treat the RA. Dumb of me! Now, I have it in my hands, stiff, swollen and in my neck. But, the new super drugs are so helpful, Lynda
my grandmother had it! horribly, and was a cripple in a nursing home and suffered terrible pain--all this before our super drugs.
My feet were involved first, then maybe 6 months later my knees. Most daysMaybe you will be lucky and only your hands will be involved. We can hope for that.
1 little finger knuckle when I was 14 and this was the only symptom apart from tiredness i had for 15 years, then my knees kept swelling but no diagnosis, then my shins and feet 6 years later and thats when i was diagnosed .Been diagnosed for 10 yearsMine originally started in a migratory manner. It would hit a joint for a few days and as it was leaving, it would start in another. The first few weeks, I had it in my wrists, elbows, shoulders, and hips. The migratory nature ended in a couple of months. Then it hit my knuckles. It's been three years since it started and now I'm beginning to have problems in my ankles and the balls of my feet. My worst joints continue to be my wrists and shoulders.
I was diagnosed three months after my migratory joint pain started, but I really think it started long before that. I had a good year of really bad fatigue and the occasional tendonitis. I really think that was the start.
Ankles were first for me, swelled up, hurt, had a fever, few weeks later i was dx with JRA withing a month it was all over...only neck and back dont give me problemsMy feet definitely. It come on suddenly (though my ESR had been elevated for months) and I felt that I was walking barefoot on a pile of rocks. Within a few weeks it was in my hands, knees and wrists. I went to get a temporary "handicap" sticker and the clerk said "I don't mean to be nosey, but you walk like you have Rheumatoid Arthritis." She had RA.I was actually studying abroad in Spain when it onset. First my middle finger knuckles swelled, then my left thumb and pinky. I thought I had just jammed them reaching in the bus to get my luggage lol. Then my feet got hit...one day I just couldn't get out of bed because they hurt too much to support me. Next it was my knees...walking became hard and stairs and hills were really tough. Then my elbows stopped extending and bending all the way, then my wrists got hit, and then my ankles. It all happened in about a two month period, from beginning to diagnosis. It went very quick!
I'm happy about one thing tho...neither of my ring fingers are affected, so I could wear my Aggie ring and my engagement ring when I got those! Oh, and my shoulders and hips are unaffected as well!
Started in the middle finger of R. hand. Then several years later I had trouble with my R. ankle, progressed to both feet. Finally was diagnosed. Pain went away. I went into denial, then about 6 years later a full bore flare of magnified proportions hit and literally every joint in my body was under attack. Meds now 3 years later are working and I have little pain or inflammation. Just some damage pain. LindyAs far back as I can remember I always had "weak ankles" They hurt. Dr.'s diagnosed me as sprains, strains, torn ligaments, broke left ankle when I was 15. Then as I got older I would get major pains in toes and feet always hurt. Just thought it was from working. I had 3 jobs one of which was cleaning 9 houses (10 counting mine) so I thought I'm getting older.......I had a strained neck, pulled muscle in leg. Many trips to dr.'s but always thought I worked too hard. Well, in 2005 a series of unfortunate events happened. Hurricane Katrina hit and our family thought my sister and her kids were all dead. I was at football game and got a phone call from my mom crying and carrying on that Debbie drowned. On the way home, I hit a deer and totalled my van. In the meantime, the dreaded phone rings again and my favorite aunt Jane had passed away from cancer. So, I finally make it home and the very next morning after a sleepless night of worrying...I woke up with my right thumb and finger swollen, hot, huge, and extreme pain. I went to urgent care and dr looked at it. Ordered x-rays and blood work. Said I had ra. Showed on xrays on my feet and hand. MY ra factor was 129. I remember sitting there with tears running down my face as he told me what it was. He was very caring and I even saw his eyes watering. He assured me that there were many new meds that could make it possible to have a normal life. He referred me to rheumy. The day of my diagnosis turned out well though....my sister called us and was alive. Her and her family were all well!! Lost everything that they had but the clothes on their back and truck. Took us 10 days to finally get her here. We wired money but there was a gas shortage and you could only get .00 at a time. She ran out of gas and a good guy (thank you whoever you are) gave her enough gas to get to another station.
Man, I just wrote a book. Sorry, that was the short version.l LOL
Mine started in my feet last August or September. I thought my shoes weren't fitting right. Then a month or two later my hands started feeling a little stiff in the morning and the middle joints in the fingers would hurt.
Finally in November I went to my pcp who said it sounded like classic symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, he was right.
So far I have had no other involvement other than hands and feet.
My mother was in denial about this until recently, because my father's RA started very differently. His thumb suddenly swelled up one day. Then later on one knee or the other would have this enormous swelling which he would go to the doctor to have drained. She refused to believed I had RA because my symptoms were so different.