New to group and have some questions

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone. I'm JJ. I was diagnosed with RA in July 2005. I got

pregnant shortly after and my RA went into remission. When my son

was 3 weeks old the RA came back with a vengeance. I couldn't

move. I have never been in so much pain in my life. It made the

pain of child birth seem like a walk in the park. I want to get

pregnant again but I am in so much pain all of the time. I have

three children total and I really want one more. I am currently

taking 7 mg of prednisone a day. My doctor wanted to put me on 2400

mg of ibuprofen and one prilosec a day but the prilosec made me so

sick that I had to get off of it. Have any out there still had

babies with RA and how did you do it? I am trying to be strong but

it is the hardest thing I have ever had to go through. My baby is 7

months old now and I still can't get up with him at night. My

husband has to get up with him. It has been working out fine until

this weekend. My son has been so sick. I was up until 3:30am with

him and now today I am in so much pain. Have any of you noticed

that sleep directly correlates with how much pain and how stiff you

are in the morning? Any advice would be well appreciated as I am

feeling very discouraged and overwhelmed. The other hard part of it

all is that my dear husband does not get this disease at all.

Because I look fine and still manage to take care of our kids and

home he doesn't realize how much pain I am in. Unless I am having a

complete breakdown he still doesn't help much. What can I do to

help him realize how hard this is, or am I being unrealistic and

expecting too much from him. Is it normal to be in this much pain

all of the time? Has anything really helped any of you that you

would recommend. Sorry this was so long, I just don't know where to

turn right now.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JJ