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Alice's Story

EdwardsPlace@prodigy.net

Hi! My name is Alice. I will be 37 years old Aug 4th. I was diagnosed with RA when I was about 15. At that time, as long as I didn't over do it, I was OK. When I was probably about 25 I when to the doctor again because I kept having knee pain on and off and I knew the key to RA was prevention of joint damage. The MD tested me and told me the RA test was negative. His prescription was exercise. 

When I was 30, I had tendonitis for the first time. After massive doses of NSAIDs, my stomach was greatly irritated, but the tendonitis in my wrist was still there. I received my first cortisone shot. It worked great. My stomach has never been the same since. I am almost always on Prilosec, Zantac, or Prevacid now. I continued to have problems on and off with my wrist, elbow, and shoulder of my writing hand. I was tested for RA again a couple of years ago, and still the test was negative. The MD thought that maybe I had a false positive when I was a teen.

Over the last year, my wrist has bothered me almost constantly if I am not taking something for it. Vioxx was my RX of choice. It helped and was much easier on my stomach. I have tried strength training a couple of time over the past 6 months, only to quit because of soreness. I had even enrolled in an exercise class for strength training. After a couple of weeks, my hips hurt severely. I stopped going to the class. After two more weeks the pain in my hips was still there. I finally went to the doctor again, one of many visits. I had also been having headaches, back pain, fatigue, and psoriasis, which had for the most part been chalked up to stress. Once again, I reminded my MD of teen RA diagnosis. =

He tested me again for RA. This time the test came back with a strong positive. I was given a cortisone shot, Prednisone and MXT pills. My family and I went on vacation the week after I was diagnosed. I felt tired and ached most of the trip. My knees felt stiff and swollen. This was a first for me, and I was scared. Sometimes it hurts just to walk or even hold an ink pen. After 4 weeks, the pain in my hips finally subsided.

I took my dog to an agility class. I would say I was moderately active in the class. The next day my hips were sore as ever. I felt very depressed by this. Today makes my 5th dose of MXT. It was increased to 10 mg this time, and I had the lab work done today for liver enzymes and CBC. I have a Prozac prescription, and I know I need to take it, but somehow I just don't seem to take it on a regular basis.

My family is not very supportive. My husband readily admits that he thinks I have been a hypochondriac in the past. My RA is only semi-real to him now because the lab test was positive. He has always told me that the doctors put me on mecications just to get my money and shut me up. I resent this and feel like the stress I have been under has helped the RA to flare. I have two children (15&12). My mother told my children that they needed to help me sometimes because I did not feel good. (I am still working 20-24 hours a week at a dialysis center) My daughter the 15 year old said why, I wasn't dying.

I had been hoping that I could exercise, get in shape, lose weight, and maybe get a full time job. Now, I am afraid that I would not be able to work full time. I know how lose weight. I know that I would feel better if I lost 50 pounds, but I can not seem to get motivated to lose weight. Actually, I have gained about 5 pounds.

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