Anyone here have RA?

kluchetta

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I'm becoming increasingly worried that I have Rheumatoid Arthritis.


Maybe it is something that will go away, but I'm scared. I don't want to go to some "anonymous" board and ask questions. I like the people here. Anyone want to talk?
 

strange_wings

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CheshireCat does.

(... I had to go back and find a thread, I couldn't remember how the username was spelled.
I could remember that lovely Chester siggy though.
)

You could try looking around for a few RA boards, healthboards is ok... but their rules are too strict - especially concerning links. Just lurk around a board until you see how it's moderated and how everyone gets along.
Usually boards like that are rather friendly and the people are supportive.
 

renovia

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My sister was misdiagnosed with RA, she ended up having a stomach band and a breast reduction and all is better now. She wasn't overweight - just large for her bone struction, she always was.
 

trouts mom

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A friend of mine has it..he is 34 and he seems to function normally
I know he goes to the gym every day pretty well..I don't see him all that often..but I could pick his brain next time I see him if you want
 
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kluchetta

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Aw, that's great to hear! Probably an issue of getting on the right meds.
 

cheshirecat

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Raising hand
I have it.

My advice is find a rheumatologist and get tested. I went undiagnosed because I don't test positive on the simple blood tests.

I have been doing OK but am at a point now where I will have to go to some different drugs and it makes me nervous.

Also I haven't gotten the results of my last labs. That make me nervous. My next appointment is February 4th and I am not looking forward to it.

If you do have it the sooner you know the better your chances of slowing it down. It never goes away but you can keep it from taking over.
 
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kluchetta

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Originally Posted by CheshireCat

Raising hand
I have it.

My advice is find a rheumatologist and get tested. I went undiagnosed because I don't test positive on the simple blood tests.

I have been doing OK but am at a point now where I will have to go to some different drugs and it makes me nervous.

Also I haven't gotten the results of my last labs. That make me nervous. My next appointment is February 4th and I am not looking forward to it.

If you do have it the sooner you know the better your chances of slowing it down. It never goes away but you can keep it from taking over.
Thanks for dropping by! I appreciate it.
Yes, in a way it was disappointing to test negative on the RF and ESR tests. That was before I started swelling and getting red. May I ask your age & how long it's been?

My Grandmother had it and was extremely crippled. That's scary.
 

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I have osteoarthritis however the approach to treatment is very similar. Your best bet would to get in to see the doctor and start treatment as soon as possible. There are several very good treatments that work really well in the early stages and they can slow down the progression of the disease greatly.
I take a med called Naproxen twice a day, which is good. I also have cortisone shots every few months. Diet, exercise, getting the right amount of rest, stress management, things like that all play a part on how well you feel.
It is not the greatest thing to have to put up with but it is managable.
 

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My Mom and my mother in law both have that! They misdiagnosed my mother in law with fibromajalia or something spelled somewhere along those lines! My mom has her good days and her bad days, but doesn't take her meds when she should, or when she shouldn't!
 

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I have an appt in may with the reumatologist ... he diagnoisised my fibro and suspected 3 yr s ago I had early RA...

Lots of new meds and way to control it ... I am not looking fwd thou...

 

stormchickx

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I was just recently dx-ed with RA tentatively back in the summer, but at first I really didn't believe it, and now I do. I just saw a Rheumatologist last week for the symptoms I've been having: pain and stiffness in both hands, mostly in my middle joints of my fingers, primarily in the mornings when I wake up. When I get going, it's not so bad, but I do have stiffness in my hips, ankles and knees. So he did confirm that I have it and ordered blood tests, which just came back today. I have elevated RA Factor, CRP, and something about celiac test done too that was elevated? I'm only 29 (will be 30 in march) so this is kind of scary for me. I've been put on Plaquenil and Sulfasalazine and I'm scared to death to take them cause of side effects...and that they could weaken my immune system...
 
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kluchetta

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I'm sorry to hear that so many people have it.
I'm one of those that gets it overnight, apparently. My ankle is so swollen today I had to wear my daughter's Etnies. (On the positive side, I am one COOL mom now!)
 

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My mom's cousin had RA & I suspect that my mom has it but she is just starting to talk to her doctor about it. My mom's cousin was in preety bad shape before it was diagnosed. She is overweight and the doctors attributed most of her symptoms to her weight. I don't know how much swelling she has, but I know that both of her wrist joints are completely fused. I'm 33 and have bad knees, the same kind of knee problems that both my mom & her cousin have. They both had a knee replacement in their 50's. So I'm constantly afraid I'll get RA.
 

strange_wings

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Originally Posted by tierre0

I have osteoarthritis however the approach to treatment is very similar. Your best bet would to get in to see the doctor and start treatment as soon as possible. There are several very good treatments that work really well in the early stages and they can slow down the progression of the disease greatly.
I take a med called Naproxen twice a day, which is good. I also have cortisone shots every few months. Diet, exercise, getting the right amount of rest, stress management, things like that all play a part on how well you feel.
It is not the greatest thing to have to put up with but it is managable.
RA and OA are nothing alike in treatment. Be because RA is usually considered a more aggressive autoimmune disease it is usually treated with DMARDs or even biologics if the person's case is severe enough to warrant them.
For OA there's some inflammation, but very little we can do to really stop it all together. The goal to treating RA is stopping the immune system's attack.

And yes, the DMARDs are scary. They often have toxic side effects and there's also the issue with lowering the immune system. There's not much to help that part though as the immune system is the problem.
 

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Originally Posted by kluchetta

Thanks for dropping by! I appreciate it.
Yes, in a way it was disappointing to test negative on the RF and ESR tests. That was before I started swelling and getting red. May I ask your age & how long it's been?

My Grandmother had it and was extremely crippled. That's scary.
If you insist
I'm 51 and I was officially diagnosed two and a half years ago.

Over the years I had problems with my left knee. I had injured it skiing when I was 12 or 13 and every so often it would be painful. But nothing serious. It always went away.

Fast forward to early 2003. One Saturday I got up and the pain was so bad I could hardly walk. As usual I took some over the counter pain killers, rested up and by Monday I was much better.

But from then on I was just never the same. It got so I was taking the drugs on a daily basis. Then it happened again. I got up one morning and could hardly walk. This time it was so bad it didn't go away in a few days. I ended up buying a cane and finding a doctor.

My new doctor told me it was arthritis and prescribed an NSAID. And apparently he did blood tests to check for rheumatoid arthritis. I never asked the details, as far as I knew it was the regular routine.

In any case the drugs helped. After a couple of months I stopped using the cane and life was much better. My knee still bothered me if I did a lot of walking but for the most part it was no big deal.

Then in the summer of 2004 I started having problems with my right hand falling asleep. The quick story on that was carpal tunnel. Surgery was scheduled. In preparation I was told that I needed to stop taking all my arthritis drugs for ten days prior to surgery.

By the time I got to the hospital on the day of the surgery my knew hurt so bad I was having trouble walking. All along I though I had it in control and the drugs didn't really do that much. Boy was I wrong.

Call it stress, or the shock of the surgery but from then on it was down hill. I had my right hand wrapped up like a mummy and couldn't use it. And it seemed like every other bone and muscle in my body was connected to it.

I was living in a townhouse and had to climb two flights of stairs on a regular basis and it was getting harder by the day.

It was then that I decided to see the rheumatologist. I remember the first visit, he was looking at x-rays of my hands and started to ask "have you been tested for rheumatoid arthritis....oh I see you have and tested negative". Hmmmm... he prescribed things that helped but it never really got better. He was then he did more tests. For awhile I felt like his science project.

Then he ordered a blood test that measured C-Reactive Protein. 0 to 7.9 is good. I was at 59.9
Bingo! we have RA.

My official diagnosis is "seronegative rheumatoid arthritis". Meaning I test negative on the usual tests but still have it. Actually this is supposed to be better. Or so they tell me.

Anyway...where I am now. I have pain on a daily basis. My joints are slowly stiffening up. Because my knees are worn out I can't walk very far or for very long. My cane came out of the closet and now has a twin.

Actually the whole thing amazes me. I don't know how it got to be this bad. It's like I manged to get by for years then one day it just caught up with me. There were things, like how far things bend and range of motion that I never noticed until the doctor pointed them out.

Now that I think of it I can remember having symptoms years ago but just passing them off.

Now I am a fanatic about early testing and diagnosis. If you test negative on the standard test and still have problems. Get the CRP test.

My latest worry is that my levels have gone down but not far enough. My next step are injectable drugs that worry me. Some days I feel like and old lady but even at my advanced age I am still relatively young. I don't want to run out of options too soon.

Sigh.....I hadn't intended on spilling my guts in public for all the world to see. I guess I got carried away.
 

cheshirecat

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Originally Posted by Rang_27

My mom's cousin had RA & I suspect that my mom has it but she is just starting to talk to her doctor about it. My mom's cousin was in preety bad shape before it was diagnosed. She is overweight and the doctors attributed most of her symptoms to her weight. I don't know how much swelling she has, but I know that both of her wrist joints are completely fused. I'm 33 and have bad knees, the same kind of knee problems that both my mom & her cousin have. They both had a knee replacement in their 50's. So I'm constantly afraid I'll get RA.
Unfortunately this is a common problem. I too am a fat lady. And as most of us know when we see a doctor the first and more often than not the only thing they see is the weight.

I have a skinny cousin that has had both knees replaced. I can remember being much heavier in my younger days and not having any problems getting around.

I'd give you the same advice I give everyone else. Find a doctor and check it out. Catch it before it catches up with you.
 

cheshirecat

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Originally Posted by stormchickx

I was just recently dx-ed with RA tentatively back in the summer, but at first I really didn't believe it, and now I do. I just saw a Rheumatologist last week for the symptoms I've been having: pain and stiffness in both hands, mostly in my middle joints of my fingers, primarily in the mornings when I wake up. When I get going, it's not so bad, but I do have stiffness in my hips, ankles and knees. So he did confirm that I have it and ordered blood tests, which just came back today. I have elevated RA Factor, CRP, and something about celiac test done too that was elevated? I'm only 29 (will be 30 in march) so this is kind of scary for me. I've been put on Plaquenil and Sulfasalazine and I'm scared to death to take them cause of side effects...and that they could weaken my immune system...
CRP (C-reactive protein) is a measure of active inflammation that is associated with RA. Keeping this down is a good sign.

At the moment I am taking Plaquenil and other than being annoyed with taking a yearly eye test have had no problems. Actually it is the first drug that I noticed making a difference in my puffyness.

I took Sulfasalazine for a few weeks but the only thing it did for me was make me nauseous. That was replaced with Methotrexate.

I would rather take the drugs because it would be much worse without them.
 
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kluchetta

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I'm glad you wrote all that, it's very informative! I was starting to doubt myself because the doctor said my RF was negative. I've got these strange red/purple blotches over some of my joints, and my work acquaintances who have RA say they don't look familiar.

But my CRP was 60.2. So maybe that says something. I can't move my ankle, but I'm not sure if that's joints or swelling...
 

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I think acupuncture would help - I'd gladly lend Squishy!


OK, I'm of no use....just trying to lighten the mood. Remember to take things one day at a time & don't jump to conclusions. You'll worry yourself dead.
 
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kluchetta

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Originally Posted by white cat lover

I think acupuncture would help - I'd gladly lend Squishy!


OK, I'm of no use....just trying to lighten the mood. Remember to take things one day at a time & don't jump to conclusions. You'll worry yourself dead.
OMG! LOL. That is too funny.

I was actually considering Cat Scratch Fever at one point.
 
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