Some of my story...

Here I am blogging about my life with Rheumatoid Arthritis... Why am I doing this? I know I am not the only person that suffers from this disease - there are approximately 1.3 million Americans who also suffer from it - but sometimes I feel like I am all alone. So, I am blogging about my story. I hope to write any time something of significance occurs but first I need to write about the past. Maybe there will be someone who reads this that is going through similar things and we can relate and help each other.

In the year 2000, I was 25 years old and I was just finishing up my quest to get my Bachelors degree. I had just moved to New Hampshire for the summer to complete an internship. I only bring this occasion up because this is where the first sign occurred that there was something wrong. My eyes were so unbelievably dry that I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed because I couldn't stand the way they felt. I thought it was a problem with my contacts, so when I returned home I immediately set up an appointment with the eye doctor to see what could be done. I had Lasik eye surgery done and that seemed to resolve most of the dry eye problem.

Around this time (February/March 2001) I was taking an Irish Step Dancing class and halfway through the class my feet and ankles were in so much pain that I could no longer continue with the class. (I was really sad about this since this kind of dancing is a blast!) My wrists were also causing me a lot of problems and I kept them wrapped in ace bandages most of the time so I could function. I thought the pain in my wrists was from years of sitting on the floor with my hands behind me for support and my wrists taking on most of my upper body weight.

You can "see" that up to this point I always had excuses as to why my body was hurting, but when the pain spread to the bigger joints - my shoulders, hips and knee's - I could no longer explain it away and I started to get scared. I kept waiting for it to go away. I thought all I needed was a good night's sleep or less stress in my life and I would feel normal again, but on the rare occasion that those things did come around the pain still did not go away. I remember spending many nights sitting on the edge of the couch, rocking back and forth and praying to God for help, wondering why my body was letting me down like it was.

Finally, one morning I woke up with severe pain in my shoulders again. I got in the shower and because I couldn't lift my arms without wanting to scream, it took me a half hour just to wash my hair and putting a bra on after the shower was almost impossible.

I broke down. I couldn't do it anymore. I had to know what was going on.

I asked my roommate to take me to the hospital. With arthritis, after you start moving the joints they tend to start to feel better so by the time I was in the Emergency Room waiting for blood to be drawn, I was feeling better physically but was feeling pretty foolish emotionally. Who goes to the Emergency Room because of arthritis? I believe one of the nurses even said "we don't normally get people in here because of arthritis", which didn't offend me, I just didn't know what else to do at this point. I'd been healthy all my life, this kind of thing didn't happen in my family - I didn't know where else to go.

The results of my visit to the ER were blood results that showed I had a very high rheumatoid factor and a doctor to contact for help. Plus some pain medication, which was only a temporary fix. BUT, I was making progress - I was finally on my way to getting some answers.

Next Post.... Doctor Visits.