Good Morning Everyone/ this will be long

[Guest guest]

It just dawned on me , I did not send in my post that introduces myself, so

here it is ! LOL

My name is Debbie, I am an RN in a very busy ER. I am 49 years young! I was

officially Dx'd with RA 3 years this June. Though I feel I have had

symptoms of it for over 10-15 years. I had gone to my doctor for years

complaining of vague symptoms, it was written off due to stress, sinus,

where do you work at? You will get every bug that comes through there. They

did ESR's which were elevated, said it was my allergies .................. I

was beginning to think I was a hypochondriac with all these symptoms. I had

gone for years to my ortho for my left wrist which was Dx'd as tendonitis!

Which was passed off with all the pushing, lifting and pulling that I do at

work !

When my asthma would act up they would put me on prednisone, and it was like

an upper to my body, I felt great and begged to be on it, but my FP was ,

you know as well as I do what it will do to your bones............... So

they did not comply or investigate it further. We did the normal blood work

to see if I had thyroid problems etc, all negative. So I figure oh well

guess you will just have to put up with it.

Three years ago this June, I fell down my basement steps and hurt my left

wrist. I figured I had just sprained it, so I did not go to see my Ortho

until several days later when the swelling was more pronounced and looked

deformed. Of course I got the why did you wait this long, this wrist is

broken, I told him I thought it was just sprained, and figure when it did

this, I had better get in to see him !He took xrays, no break, he goes, well

we need an MRI, I thought for sure this wrist was broken and if it is an

occult fracture, then we are dealing with something we do not want to deal

with. I have severe Osteo in my family. That came back negative but did show

wear and tear in the wrist, which they said was from my job. My wrist is

still swollen, and painful. So he goes, ok time for blood work, he did a

slue of labs, including and RF !He had me off work for most of this time too

and when I went back with many restrictions on what I could do! Well I go

back and he says we have an answer, and I go what, he said you have RA, I go

what? I said, PTL, I am not crazy, there is something wrong with me, and he

looked at me like I was crazy, he said Deb, I knew there was something wrong

with you and I was going to find it !!! So he put me on prednisone and my

body was ohhhhhhhhhhh I feel so good !!!!!! LOL So a month later I saw my

Rummy and started on my course of treatment!

I see him and he is very understanding and goes yep you feel that way, and I

am thinking all these years of being ill could of been stopped. He

classifies me as moderate. I have already told you of some of the problems I

have had with meds. So will not go into that here.

I have had a very supportive family, which has really helped!We have three

grown daughters and four wonderful grand children. My husband and I have

been married for close to 30 years and is a great source of support,

sometimes he coddles me to much ! LOL This experience has also got me

closer to my faith in God. He is defiantly my strength !!!

All of my joints are affected and my back too. My hands are the worse and

some days I can not pick anything up at all ! Sleep was a big factor too, as

I was not getting it due to pain, so my rummy put me on Cymbalta, and man

does it help with pain and sleep ! So now I am sleeping so much better !

No one in my family has RA, maybe several generations back, but not sure on

that either. My dad did have Rheumatic Fever as a child and we almost lost

him, so do not know if it came from that or not. My poor girls have it on

both sides now, with me and my husband's aunt who had beyond severe RA. She

use to say, Deb, do you know what is nice about plastic, and I would go no,

she goes you cant get arthritis in it ! Now I know exactly what she was

talking about all those years ago. Maybe she was trying to prepare me for

something that I did not even know I had then !

When I look back over all those years, even back into my mid 20's, I can see

the symptoms and no one caught it. Me being an RN never caught it either,

as I never even thought of RA! Oh well it does no good to look back, you

need to look forward and make each day count ! With a supportive family, a

good rummy doc and meds that work, and God, it does all work out ! Now if I

could just learn to listen to my body more so that it does not rebel against

me and says ok, I will make you rest, I would be even farther in the

game!!!!! LOL

Debbie A

Have a great day !