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Michael's Story

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Hi. My name is Michael and I was diagnosed in May of 1999. But my story starts a couple of years before that.

In 1997, I suffered some big personal setbacks and went into a deep depression. Thankfully a friend of mine (she's still my best friend) realized that something was wrong and convinced me to get help. I did, and they put me on various medications and got me into a counseling program. But the load of twenty-three college hours and other things weren't helping. Then the medications the doctors put me on to help me cope with life changed the chemical balance in my brain. I held out as long as I could, but eventually I caved under all the pressures. I made my suicide attempt two days after my 21st birthday, thinking I was solving everyone else's problems. I was found just in time and hospitalized for a few weeks (just until the insurance company wouldn't pay anymore), then turned loose on the world. I tried to return to college, but my heart just wasn't really in it, and after that failed semester I couldn't get any more student loans. When I left college, my insurance stopped coverage, leaving me high and dry.

The reason I share all of this here is, when I was diagnosed with RA at the age of 25, I nearly sunk into that deep depression again. I was working in Las Vegas at the time. I had no family and few friends nearby. Everyone and everything I knew were back in Missouri, so I had no support system. It took me a while to realize that I could live with this, that I HAD to live with this. People were counting on me to be around for a while. It was a hard lesson to learn, but I'm still here....

The arthritis took me, and my family by surprise. No one in my family had ever shown any sign of it before. I just woke up one morning and my right hand was about three times as big as it should have been. I went to the doctor, and he asked how I'd managed to break my hand. After about two weeks on anti-inflamitories and negative x-rays, he finally decided to send me to a rheumatologist. He didn't tell me why, just set up the appointment for me. I found out it was arthritis when I went to pay the bill and the cashier said I was awfully young to have arthritis! The first rheumy confirmed it was arthritis and put me on Celebrex. A few days later I started itching all over, but I felt a whole heck of a lot better! Finally I couldn't stand the itching anymore, so he took me drugs for a week, then tried Sulfasalazine. The itching started the next day. It turns out I'm allergic to sulfa drugs. Too bad, cause they worked pretty well. I started MTX and some other things, and finally found a cocktail that worked for me.

I finally found a job based in Missouri, near my family and friends, and moved back home. The move naturally made my arthritis active again. Found a new doctor (a very good one, too!), and started playing with my cocktail again. Eventually MTX reactions forced me off it and onto Arava. Then got approval to try Remicade. That worked for most of two years. Here it is in May of 2003, I was just taken off Remicade to celebrate my 27th birthday. I'm currently fighting my insurance company to get their blessing for Humira.

I've met a wonderful girl who, for some inexplicable reason has fallen in love with me and agreed to marry me (but not until she's finished with her college education, I insist). I've gone back to school, and am currently working on an Associates degree (when work doesn't interfere, anyway). I've stayed close to my small family, helping my grandmother deal with her own arthritis, joint replacements, etc. I've seen my best friend get married and they now have their first child (my godson, I might add!). Not bad, for someone who didn't think he'd get past his 21st birthday, eh?

Hopefully, this will help someone else realize that things aren't as bad as they could be. Arthritis is NOT the end of anything, it's just a little speed bump, reminding us to slow down and take care of the things that really matter. Good luck to everyone out there!

Help ever, hurt never.

Mich