RE: R/A (In need of support)

[Guest guest]

Hi Flo,

Glad you found us. This is a great group and very supportive!

Hugs,

Jacy

Listen to everyone, read everything, believe nothing unless you can prove it in your own research.

jacymail@...IM: jacygal - ICQ: 96949087www.geocities.com/mtn_rose

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-----Original Message-----From: florence.harris@... [mailto:florence.harris@...]Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 21:37Rheumatoid Arthritis Subject: R/A (In need of support)Hi all, My name is Florence. I have been "lurking" as I have seen you all call it for a couple of days and thought I would throw my hat into the ring. I am 44 years old and single. I was diagnosed with R/A in 1987.I too had been through a great deal of stress prior to R/A. When I was about 27 my mom died of cancer, I was her care giver. Shortly there after my father had a major heart attack and had triple bypass surgery, I was also his care giver. Within about the next six months I started experiencing R/A symptoms. We know stress does not cause R/A, but it surely is one of the many triggers that awakens those dormant cells.I have been on just about all combinations of the R/A meds. Starting with gold, methotrexate, placquenil,immuran, vioxx, prednisone, enbrel and a few others I can not remember right now. I have had some bad reactions in the past. The strangest was when I was on immuran, I developed non infectous hepatitis and contracted chicken pox on my liver. My immune system was so comprimised that I was in isolation in the hospital for 2 weeks. I have been on and off of methotrexate and one of those times, I lost a great deal of my hair and developed ulcers in my mouth. However, considering the seriousness of the meds used for this disease, I guess I feel lucky that nothing more serious in nature has has happened yet.I have never joined a group before, I have been kind of dealing with this on my own. Although I do have a great support system from my sisters, they would do anything for me. They still can not give me what I really need and that is someone that knows!So here I am, I am looking forward to getting to know you all. I promise in the future I will not write so much. I'll give you my life story in smaller bites. I'm always long winded, but I am just excited to have taken this step.Thanks for listening, Flo