Happy First Anniversary

Congratulations!  I'm so happy to hear that you and your RA have found a way to live in  harmony.

And thank you so much for this upbeatand hopeful post. I love hearing the success stories - it so important for us to remember that good things happen.

Well, tomorrow is my 27th birthday and I'm still learning about this new diagnosis.  It the "early stages" of RA and not guarenteed to reach the worst.  However, I've now been on Plaquenil and Naprosin for two weeks today.  The first day of realizing I was on DMARDs was terrifying but the NSAIDs have given me a large amount of relief.  Because it's the early stages I'm not in the middle of a bit flare-up, it's rather mild right now.  But the 6 weeks of inner screams and vocal cries as a reflex when I simply tried to pull up my pants or wash my hair (before even seeing my doctor about the pain) linger below the surface of my mind.  Every day I wait expecting it to bubble right to the top and flare up again.  Reading posts like yours help me to see that it's not all bad, all of the time and that I'm not alone.  Today my TMJ is receiving a visit from my RA so it might mean soup for lunch, but that's ok.  At least I can talk and walk.  And tomorrow it will have moved on to visit another lonely joint, so I will eat cake and be merry!

Its sereIndipitous that I should find yours today as its two years of symptoms for me and I was thinking back to the process - I became worse and worse and could barely get out of bed - I decided to go to the er to see what help i could get as I didnt have a family doctor and chances of finding one here are very slim - the er doctor said you shouldnt be here and gave me a perscription for celebrex and that was that.

I was lucky enough to find a really good doctor who diagnosed me and sent me to a wonderful rheumatologist who i love - he prescribed plaquinal, sulfasalazine and methotrexate and after several months they kicked in and I began to feel more like me.

Its been about 1 1/2 years on meds.  I exercise daily - I walk one day and stationary bike the other plus weights and feel almost normal - just the odd twinge when I stand up but compared to what i was this is fine.

thank you for yours.

pipercat

This is one of those anniversaries where you have to decide if it's something to celebrate or something to mourn.  I had my 1 year anniversary May 1st (May day May day!!).  I too felt a bit ambivalent.  You know, good that it got diagnosed so I can do something about it but.....dang, I got RA!! 

Like you I am doing oodles better.  I likewise appreciate reading posts like yours that celebrate the improvements.  It can get better.  Still sucks, but it doesn't have to be the worst case scenario either. 

I'm so glad you're back to being the biker babe you wanna be, luv.  Good on ya!

-Amy