Newbie - recently diagosed

[Guest guest]

Greetings, everyone. My name is Jackie, and I was recently dx'd with

RA. Started with a broken wrist, was having a lot of problems with it

and also other joints hurting, so dr ran an RF which came back

positive. Not surprising, since I have a long history of autoimmune

problems - chronic urticaria (hives - in remission), Hashimoto's

thyroiditis, membranous glomerulonephritis (kidney disease - also in

remission), endometriosis (had 2 surgeries for that years ago), and

now this. Also have a rare blood disorder called systemic

mastocytosis - basically my body makes too many mast cells, and it's

like I am constantly having allergic reactions, although I have no

allergies (except to sulfa drugs).

Anyhow, started meds last week, taking methotrexate 10mg once a week,

prednisone 10mg 3x a day, and Lyrica 75mg once a day, on top of my

meds for other conditions. Doctor thinks I also have fibromyalgia,

and in reading through some of the archives, it appears to be

something that many others here have. Is fibro another manifestation

of RA, or are they two separate conditions? I had a flare of what we

figured was fibro back when I was being treated with cyclosporine for

the kidney disease, then it gradually subsided by itself after about

a year. Now it seems to be back in full force, just as painful as I

remember...

Jackie