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My name is Jo and I am 42, married, no children.

I was dx with RA in 1998. I had the flu and several days after recovering from

it I awoke to terrible pain, every joint, literally, was swollen to the size of

golf balls and fire red, even the bottoms of my feet were swollen. I could not

walk. My fever was up to over 102. My husband took me to the ER and the first

thing they said was does she have RA? They did many tests and said it was viral

arthritis brought on by the influenza. I was in the ER 3 times, admitted once

and bed ridden for 6 weeks and it took roughly 4 months for all the swelling to

go down. They had me on steroids and other meds I cant remember off the top of

my head and of course pain pills.

As far as they told me I would never have any more problems despite the DX of

RA. My joints began to become increasingly more painful and would swell,

becoming very red and tender over the years, many times so bad I would just lay

and cry, trying heating pads to help and took lots of motrin which didn't help.

I said something 3 years ago to my doctor at the VA and he did an RF , Sed Rate,

and ANA, which came back positive. He said yes it is RA and sent me to the

rheumatologist at the Indianapolis VA to get treatment, but the docs there only

did more blood work, which was pos and more x-rays and then did nothing. The VA

does my blood work every 6 months and it is always the same and they never do

anything for me. I cant even get anything for the pain.

I use ultram for a back injury, that is my disability from the Air Force, which

doesn't do much if anything for the RA when I have what I call an episode.

I went to a private doctor and he said he disagreed with both of the DX and that

he doesn't treat lab results and then said he needed more labs done. He charged

me $500 and told me it was all in my head! I didn't have deformed joints so it

cant be RA. I got those records and found that my private civilian doctor wrote

a note saying that it was not RA and that I have depression and it is all in my

head.

Now my finger joints are becoming deformed, I am sick most of the time, and

spend much of the morning just working through the pain and stiffness so I can

get moving.

I am frustrated. I can not get any doctor to treat me. I have read the book

Living with RA by Hopkins Univ. and have educated myself on this disease.

We have no insurance and I must rely on the VA system mostly, which is terrible

to say the least. I am a disabled veteran.

Hope to find some support on this list.

phine Askren