New Member

[Guest guest]

I'm a new member here. I am currently awaiting the confirmed diagnosis, but my

Rheumatologist, was pretty certain immediately upon seeing me that I have RA. It

does run in my family, but I really never expected my joint pain would turn out

to be RA.

I'm a 34yo single mom of two. I've been sick awhile, and not just with the RA, I

have some other pretty serious health issues, that are as of yet still

undiagnosed. My endocrinologist thinks I may have either primary or secondary

hyperaldosteronism, but after more than 6 months of tests now, still no

confirmation. The secondary hyperaldo means there's something else causing it,

which means more testing to determine what else is wrong. He has concerns about

my kidneys.

I have had some serious blood pressure and low potassium issues since the age of

25, and those issues have gotten drastically worse the last three years. I've

been in and out of the hospital the last two years constantly.

About six months ago in the midst of the many other symptoms I've had with my

other health issues, I started having joint pain and stiffness and my exhaustion

level went from pretty darn bad, to just impossible. What started out as just

very occasional joint pain, has increased to daily constant pain. My angles,

knees, hands and wrists are the worse. But I even get pain in my elbows, hips,

neck, back and shoulders.

My rheumatologist is quite concerned that my other health issues are going to

make treating my RA very difficult. I'm having a hard time dealing with this, I

guess in my head I thought all of my symptoms would eventually relate to

something that could be cured...and now, I know there's more than one thing

wrong, and the RA isn't curable.

I'm trying to do as much research as possible and learn what I can. I see my

rheumatologist again on the 3rd of Feb, and will get the official diagnosis.

Jen