Arthritis Insight-Member Stories-DeAnna

DeAnna's Story

Hi, my name is DeAnna and I am 31 years old, I was first affected with RA about 8 years ago. I woke up one morning to find my entire body swollen and I was unable to get out of bed. My husband dressed me, carried me to the car and drove me to the emergency room. Prognosis wasn't easy, at first they stated lupus, but then further test showed I had psoriatic arthritis. I had flares of psoriasis since I was about 10 years old. Once the arthritis hit, the psoriasis came back for good. The rheum dr. put me on steroids and pt for about 8 months, then everything seemed to disappear. Right! After having my daughter, my second child (my son is 6 yrs my daughter 3 yrs) the arthritis came back with a vengeance. My fingers are all knotted and every little thing makes them feel like the bones are coming through my skin. I also have it in the elbows, knees, jaw (left side), ankles and feet. I am also a diabetic, with excellent control though, so I have to watch meds that cause too much nausea, because I HAVE to eat, no way around that. My current rheum dr. took me off vioxx, which is what my other dr. currently had me on, and put me on MTX. I'm up to 10mg oral and I am on my second week. Nausea is pretty moderate, but I try and drink a lot of juice and milk to keep my sugars steady. Everything I see on this site, seems to say that MTX is a wonder drug. I hope you all are right, because I can't even put socks on my little girl without tears streaming down my face from pain. If something is dropped and I have to bend over, I flinch before I even start moving because I know how much pain is going to be inflicted by bending over and worse getting up! I would love to correspond with anyone who can help give me a little lift. I'm usually pretty good, but with winter coming now, the downs will come as sure as the extra pain and swelling. Anyone who has any other info on MTX would be great to hear from too.

Thank you all and I am so glad I found this site! It is the best site ever!