Newly Diagnosed part 2

[Guest guest]

WOW! Thank you all for the great response! For the first time in

weeks I did not feel like I was out there by myself.

I have had wrist pain most of my adult life. This March I decided to

see a surgeon about fixing the laxity in them. It started with a trip

to see my gp, then on to the ortho and finally the hand and wrist

surgeon. He just suggested phys ther. At that time the last thing I

wanted to do was move my wrists. The ortho ran some blood work and it

came back not normal. My gp ran it again a few weeks later and the

results were still not normal. She suggested the rheumatologist.

Got in to see him and he was very nice. Checked all of my joints and

ordered more blood work. At this time he said he was calling it

inflamatory arthritis. When the blood work came back I was told it

was RA, even though my rf was negative. I was told of some websites

to check out and was put on Plaqenil. By the second day of those I

could barely get out of bed. It felt like I had the worst case of the

flu you could imagine. Then the gastric problems started. Ugh! After

a week I called to get something for the pain and my dr decided to

put me on prednisone for 2 weeks. One week through and no relief yet.

At first I felt glad to have a diagnosis. To have a name on this

sometimes unbearable pain. But at the same time it's scary as all

heck. But then I started thinking maybe he is wrong because I have

always had joint hypermobility and have sprained or dislocated my

wrists all the time. But can that be part of the RA or is it just a

side note? My dr said I presented with all the RA symptoms but the RF

was negative. But all the other blood said otherwise. I guess now I

am rambling on because I am still trying to wrap my brain around it.

Some days I feel totally useless. I mean when my wrists are bad I

can't do anything. Even holding a book is futile. My husband and 17

yr old daughter are wonderful. They take up where I leave off. But

some days I can't help but feel like a doorstop. And I am on

antidepressants and anxiety meds. Been on those for a while. I guess

I am just feeling sorry for myself. Pity party, table for one! But I

thank all of you for all of the generous offers of support. I finally

feel connected again.

Thanks for letting me blab on.