Help Please! Do I have early signs of RA?

Hi Please go and see a doctor its taken me four months from my first gp visit to get a diagnoses of RA it really does sound like you need to have blood tests. Keep perservering till you get an answer too. 

I'm new to ra.  I first noticed my thumb on my right hand was sore.  Unusually when I was blow drying my hair. I started having psin in my right hand and then it went to above my knees on both sides.  I couldn't get off the couch without difficulty and sometimes had to roll myself off because I couldn't use my hand to brace  myself.  I went to the doctor and asked him if there was a blood test that would show why this was happening.  He said "you mean RA?"  He looked at my hands and said I didn't have any nodules so he just put me on arthritis medicine which didn't help.  

Wih all of your symptoms, fever, swelling, nodules, fatigue,I would suspect ra but it could also be some other auto immune disease.  I only have been reading about ra simce that's what I have.  It took me a year to find out what was wrong with me, even going to ortho docs that told me I had minor carpal tunnel and tendonitis.  Eventually I went to a nurse practitioner who finally did blood work and that's when I found out!

when you go make sure they do blood work and Check for ra!  If I hadn't' pursued it I still wouldn't know!

good luck and please post and let us know what you find out!

 

Please go to the doctors it sounds very much how my r.a started keep on at doctors for bloods I hope that it's not the case for you good luck x

Hi Brittany sounds like Ra, but you'll need to go through the system, which will take a while. Don't worry though their treatments are pretty good for this autoimmune disease, although there is no cure there is a good chance of remission. Ask to be referred to an early arthritis clinic asap regardless of your blood test results. The blood tests can be negative, but you still have it, this happened to me. I paid for a private consultation in the end. I'm 28 so I know what it's like, good luck to you. I've had to wait 6 months to get to the early arthritis clinic! If treated early the prognosis is better oftentimes.

Hi, your articulation of your symptoms is so well described. It sounds very much like you have full blown RA, rather than early RA, and as if you are in a painful flare up. While in this highly inflammatory state, the damage is so very high on your body and joints and is irreversible. Before more damage and pain incurr, please go for medical care so you can be treated fir this, being prescribéd a prednisone pak to get your inflammation down and hopefully managed well. I found many things were triggering this state of the disease, which evolved around malasorbing of nutrients in my colon, caused by my eating gluten, high sugars, dairy, soy, and other highly inflammatory or allergery sensitive foods..as well as high stress within myself and/or environment, less than 10 hrs of nightly sleep and an improper balance of vitamins, nutrient and minerals to which I had to supplement. I found that I strongly needed calcium( with 2000 mg D3) and magnesium glycinate, taken in a 2:1 ratio and a good multi vitamin along with fish oil capsules (do not use unscented). I also found most of the RA medications prescribed (methotrexate, biologic injections, sulfa drugs) were not effective for me and because they cause immune systems to be compromised, triggered infections, and kept me in consistant flares, such as you are describing. An anti inflammatory is highly needed for you and I finally ended up with plaquenil which takes some time getting into my system, but did not trigger or cause underlyinging infections. What now causes the high inflammatory states for me are the things I've shared above, rather than a painful combination of the contributing factors with the RA treatment that just made the disease worse and unmanaged. I would make an appt as soon as possible and then be very proactive in what works for you personally.

I also need to take prescribed Tramadol for the pain, caused by the damage that has been done to my body caused by unmanaged and improper treatment of my high inflammation rates. The calcium with D and magnesium glycinate ratio of 2:1 took away all of the fibromyalga all over pain, which I've been able to manage for 4+ years due to this.

Hello everyone thank you for your encouragement to see a doctor!! I don't have insurance at the moment I'm in the process of filing for some so I went to an immediate care facility. The doctor there did diagnose me with RA without any blood test just from the damage I already have to my pinky and ring fingers and same on my toes! I was very shocked and scared to hear that. I know at 27 the prognosis isn't good. Does anyone have any ideas for lifestyle changes such as diet etc that I could make until my insurance goes into effect? Thank you all so much for your encouragement to see a doctor!!