Do You Think You Have Rheumatoid Arthritis?

Are your joints red, swollen and painful?  Do your affected joints feel stiff in the morning?  Do you feel fatigued or have muscle aches?  These are common symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.

Rheumatoid arthritis affects 1.3 million people in the United States.  It is an autoimmune disease which must be diagnosed as early as possible to prevent joint damage.

If you think you may have rheumatoid arthritis, watch the educational video below.  Then make an appointment with your doctor as soon as possible.

You may also want to write down your symptoms, how long the symptoms last, where the pain is located, etc.  This information will be helpful to your doctor or rheumatologist.

What Do You Do When You’re Diagnosed with Something New?

originally published 6/18/08

I was faced with this same situation last week.  What I thought was another rheumatoid arthritis (RA) flare was not.  The pain and stiffness in my hands has been increasingly getting worse, not to mention my hip bothering me like there is no tomorrow.  I have even resorted to keeping a cane in the car just in case I need it when I’m out and about. 

So when I went to the rheumatologist last week to determine if my RA medication needed to be changed, etc., I found out that the problem is not my RA at all.  “Really?  How could that be?  I’m in so much pain.”  Instead, I’m told that fibromyalgia is most likely the cause of the majority of my pain.  I was in shock.  To top it off, the pain in my hands is most likely from osteoarthritis.  Double whammy!

I have had RA since I was a child.  I have never questioned it.  I know how to deal with it.  It has been my life.  I guess I never thought I would get any other forms of rheumatism.  I don’t know why really.  I just never thought about it.

For the rest of the day, I could not function.  I was just in a daze really.  If you know me, that is shocking.  I’m always very busy throughout the day, but I just could not cope with one more thing that day.  It’s not like I was sitting around wondering “why me?”.  I just kept thinking that I not only have RA, I now have fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis to deal with.  How am I going to continue doing the things I want to do?  Will I need to scale back my daily duties?  Will I need to stop working soon?  Will I be able to keep up with my young daughter?  All of these things were just swirling around in my head.

So what do you do when you’re told something you did not expect?  Or when you’re diagnosed with something else on top of what you already have?

I don’t think there is one right answer for that.  I think you need to do whatever you feel comfortable with.  For me, it was taking one day of thinking how it would affect my life.  I put everything else on hold for that day and actually the next.  The second day was one of action.  I educated myself about the two diseases…well, actually one disease (osteoarthritis) and one syndrome (fibromyalgia)…but that is another post entirely.  I checked to see if there were any local education classes about fibromyalgia and checked into local arthritis water classes (aqua-aerobics).

So, in all, you just do whatever it is that gets you through it.  Ultimately, we need to accept it, understand it, and move on in a way that does not compromise our health.  I hope this helps you get through it too.