RA causes/advice help

Hello Chris,

Thank you did your service. RA for me was inherited, I believe. Do you have family members who have RA? I suffered for almost seven years before being diagnosed with lupus first then RA about a yaer later. I had been tested before but nothing was found several times. I was diagnosed after I began working at an auto-manufacturing plant. I believe it was there and that repetitive motion woke it up. Have you had stiff joints or pain before? I am asking because most of the time it's there but something wakes it up.

Hi Chris,

i don't think anyone has a clear idea on what causes it unfortunately but my family seems to be a bit predisposed to auto immune problems with both my sisters having various problems, my Daughter has had MS for many years and now me with RA. I was finally diagnosed a year ago but have been suffering for a few years and it's only now I realise that the malaise I was feeling, like exhaustion, leaden arms, feet and ankles aching was part of it?

it might be that when you look back you will recollect things that didn't seem significant at the time. Just recently my left arm was aching, hard to lift it and I had to chuckle as I remember driving to work on several occasions and complaining my power steering had failed, only to find it was OK the next day, it drove my Husband (who was a mechanic) mad trying to find the fault! I now know it was me who was the problem lol.

good luck with life, maybe one day we will find the answer.

No one knows the causes but I was asked at my first consultant appt if I smoked and if there was someone in my family who had RA as these are risk factors ie RA isn't exactly genetic as its not automatically passed on but some of us have more genetic likelihood for An auto immune response to be triggered.

But I guess all of us want to try and understand how it happened we got RA so I have read a lot of ' how my RA started' stories on web sites. Among them was beginning with a virus, a physical trauma( one lady accidentally knocked the edge of her hand against a door- the ensuing swollen fingers turned into RA- but if course loads of people do that and it never turns into RA ) plus emotional trauma - these were linked with sudden onset of RA. For myself I have wondered if an increasingly stressful job followed by a virus was the trigger. But I ve been in more stressful situations without this happening!

As you were abroad could you have been ill, been bitten by anything?

of course, in these stories folks are trying to make sense of their experience and come to terms with it all so we have no idea if what they thought set it off actually did ! ! It s all a bit of a guessing game and we may have to accept there is no answer to why our lives changed direction. But there still will be a future.you ll adapt and get through it.

i was in the service for 25 years and on contracting RA immediately looked to my service.   Unfortunately, as there is no known cause for RA I could find no link.   About 15 months ago I had an elbow arthroscopy  (OA, and most definately service related for which I proved a causative link) from which I developed an infection. several weeks later I started suffering from painful joints and was subsequently diagnosed with RA.   The Rheumatologist showed great interest in that infection and the short course of antibiotics but fell short of drawing a link.   Certainly there are a few writings on the web that draw a tenuous link.   Medical science still has no idea of the cause and sadly even less idea of a cure.

I don't think RA is an exact science and seems to attack randomly. But I do strongly believe some traumas can bring it on. I had breast cancer and RA came on at same time. I have heard many people on these forums give accounts of suffering bereavement or other things prior to getting it. But then some say it came on without any prior trauma. So its a mystery! Good luck.

You could also ask what causes any illness really. Sometimes genes are responsible but some people suddenly get incurable cancers with no family history of it. So many diseases attack people randomly with no rhyme or reason. But I think there are triggers which can bring diseases on. Complicated subject!

Mine seemed to start, Dr described it as post viral syndrome, and I would get over it, instead it just got worse and worse, until I collapsed on the floor and couldn't push myself up enough to get off the floor. After some time family found me, and picked me up and took me to the local hospital, where a smart young Dr ran some unauthorised blood tests, apparently not supposed to run these tests on emergency patients, ESR and CRP, and they came back very high.

A few weeks later saw specialist rheumo she declared I had Psorasis arthritis, and was negative for RA, but effectively had the same thing.

When I think back, and the specialist asking questions, my Dad had enornously swollen hands, which is exactly what I have, so i think there may be a family link.

My sister also has a form of auto immunine as well, but not arthiritis, or so she tells me, as does my brother who has also developed arthiritis, his has been his knees that have given it away very quickly in the last couple of years, welcome to the land of stuffed joints was my reaction, he had been laughing at me for years, now the boot is on the other foot.

I believe mine started with a root canal. My dentist put me on antibiotics for an extended period of time, nearly 2 months then sent me to a specialist to have my tooth pulled. The specialist even made the comment about the length of time I was on antibiotics. It wasn't but a few weeks that I came down with the "flu" and was so weak I could barely move. The following week my shoulder flared, the next week the other shoulder then the following week, both hands. I was lucky to be diagnosed when my hands flared and have been going downhill ever since. I am supposed to get my enbrel and start it today and I hope it works.

I had an emergency appendectomy a little over a year ago and was put on antibiotics after and developed C Diff, a gut infection which took 8 months of other antibiotics to cure. Shortly after I finished meds my fingers started to swell and be red, hot and painful. My rheumy thinks it is related but who knows?  Yours could possibly be triggered by the stress of deployment or so many other things. Thanks for your service. You certainly don't need RA to make your service time more difficult. Good luck!