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Evelyn's Story

Eveihome@aol.com 

Well it was very sudden. One day I was fine and the next....BOOM!

We had been on vacation and I had noticed my ankles were slighly swollen, but didn`t think too much of it. I had been having knee pain for a few years, but the docs said it was age......50`s.... anyway we had a quiet vacation and the day we got back my ring finger on my right hand started hurting and cramping up on me. Then it started to swell and REALLY hurt. After a day or so it went away. A couple of weeks later my left hand started to swell and then my right hand. The pain was like I had never had in all my days. So on Monday I went to the Dr. and she said she thought it was gout. Did blood tests and took ex-rays. It wasn`t gout.Well you know the rest RA factor in the blood and more pain. I went to a rheumatologist and he did a lot of testing , took a lot of blood and checked for many different diseases. Now I`m on predisone and methotraxate and anti-inflamatories. But hey, I can bath myself again, which I couldn`t do for a while, "Thank God for my husband" and "I can do laundry", I never thought I`d be happy doing laundry! And I`m trying to have positive thoughts and energies. I write to several RA friends on the net and get lots of support from them. I think this disease has made me apprcieate life a lot more, even the small things. Guess that`s it. If anyone would like to write me my address is Eveihome@aol.com