I was diagnosed last year w/RA. Now I also have been told I have Fibro. I am taking Methotrex, Plaquinel, Prozac, another antidepressant to help me sleep @ night, and a vitamin B complex. I am extremely fatiqued all of the time, and the soreness comes and goes w/prickley needle like sensations. How do you get through this????? And why has this happened???? Many thanks for any help.
4/27/10 7:49pm
In terms of wondering why things happen, there is some evidence that stressful or traumatic events (like surgery or traffic accidents) can contribute to triggering RA, but only in people predisposed to the disease, which means that if that happens, the RA would probably have developed down the road anyway. However, I find it less stressful to chalk it up to the infamous "sh*t happens" and do my best to move on with adapting, adjusting and finding ways of connecting to my life again.
To help you with that, you may want to check out the fibromyalgia area of our Chronic Pain site for more information about the condition and various forms of treatment. I'd also recommend poking around in MyRACentral's section for the newly diagnosed for posts on all kinds of aspects of living well with RA. Also, the government both called The First Year with Rheumatoid Arthritis - it's 10 years old, but a wonderful resource that can help you start getting back control of your life.
It can take a while to adjust - you can probably expect that most of your first year after diagnosis will be spent finding a medication that works for you (it can take some trial and error, but is worth the wait when it happens), grieving the loss of your healthy self, finding ways of managing your energy levels and in general getting back on your feet. I can highly recommend counseling, especially if you can find somebody who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy - I've seen several counselors over my 40+ year "career" with RA, but the therapist who treated me with cognitive therapy was the most helpful - I still use the coping mechanisms I learned there and haven't needed to go back to counseling since.
And other than that, hang in there and find people who know what you're going through. We have a wonderful community of very supportive uses here, so jump into the conversation any time and if you feel up to it, maybe write a SharePost and tell us a bit about your story.
4/22/10 4:17pm
Breathe, Breathe and Breathe again.
Fibro is a biotch!!!! It's hell when even your hair hurts!! The burning sensation, needles and fatigue are completely Fibro. Most of the time with RA comes fibro sooner or later, don't ask me why.
How do I cope? I have no idea. (I would love for a miracle that one day some rheumatologist would give me so much as a freakn vicodine. No such luck tho. I have never been prescribed anything stronger than a tylenol in the past 20+ years except after surgeries and stuff). But the true answer to your question is within yourself. Why did you get up this morning? I know that sounds like a load of BS but there are seriously days when I wish I were dead. Sometimes I get up in the morning only because I have to feed my dogs and attempt to clean my house. My love for my partner, my family and my animals help me push past the tears and the sensation that my skin and muscles are screaming. I am a caretaker and don't want them taking care of me just yet. I know that day will come.
Sometimes I challenge myself to see just how much pain I can endure without it actually killing me. (A joke on the saying, "the pain is killing me."). Well, it hasn't killed me yet.
You say you are taking prozac and another antidepressant. Ask you doc about bio meds like Enbrel and maybe Lyrica for the Fibro. Lyrica will replace the other antidepressants. For me believe it or not, neurtontin has worked for me in the past. I guess there was connection with brain patterns and the sensitive nerves endings with fibro. But I wouldn't suggest Lyrica and neurtontin both. Ask your doctor.
Sometimes our docs can seem uncaring. But if you don't talk to them nothing will change. And you will hear it stressed over and over in this website. Talk to your doc about Enbrel or Humira. The bio meds are angels for us that suffer. And better than any narcotic on the market.
Well, gotta go try to cook dinner.
Let me know how you are doing. ronievamp@yahoo.com
4/22/10 5:59pm
Yes stress is a factor in pain and depression. But I do not believe stress can cause RA. I do know it has been proven to be genetic and it can be 100% heretiary from woman and woman. I don't know if you read my bio but I am 3rd generation. Mom and Grandma died from RA related issues and cancers. (Mom was diagnosed when they were experimenting with RA drugs and got the big C from them.) Funny thing is that the 3 of us are the only ones and there are plenty of other women in my gigantic family. I was diagnosed a million years ago. Mom knew I had it many moons before the docs figured it out.
Who the F knows why Fibro is caused and what exactly the F it is. It just freakn hurts and hurts some more. But the good thing is that it may not hurt tomorrow. And I would love to be one of those lucky mofo's who get ongoing scripts for narc's just so i can freakn vacuum this dog hair without stopping.
I used to be extremely active. Being the only girl of my mother's 5 kids, I refused to let my brothers see me slow dow. I played softball through my pain and could dance circles around anyone I knew.
It has taken me a lot of years to come to terms with the fact that I had to slowly change my life. I cannot move anywhere near as fast as my mind does anymore. It was especially hard for me to get sick last year and have to come off Enbrel and stop working. I thought my partner, Karen, was going to have me committed for depression a few months back when I finally looked at her and asked her to help me pick out a wheelchair.
The exhaustion is to laugh at sometimes. I am so tired of being tired. And I am too young to feel so old. And I have a 3 year old nephew who doesn't understand why I can't run after him. But Karen knows that visits with him are sometimes my reason for getting up. She also knows that after he leaves Sunday nights, I will let myself fall, cry and sleep. We both know it will take days to recover.
Does it ever stop? I don't know if I would recognize it anymore if it did. Pain is a part of me now. A good day is when I make it to the bathroom in the morning without stopping because of the pain.
I have grieved for the loss of my mobile self. But I have learned to celebrate small victories such as cutting my own steak and opening sweetener for my tea.
You will cry, I still do. I sometimes tell kids that ask that I was in a car accident. I laugh cuz in a way I was, there just wasn't a car.
learn to laugh, email me if you need to cry. ronievamp@yahoo.com
4/27/10 7:40pm
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4/22/10 11:53pm
Hello,
I understand what you are going through, I have fibromyalgia. I do take Vid B12
shots and that seems to help with the cronic fatige, the needle sensations and
you may feel a burning sensation on your skin is the nerves. You need to
talk to your Dr. about medication to help with nerve pain. Start keeping a
log of what you are doing during the day and how long you are doing it for.
If you do too much you will know either that night or the next day. It is
hard to reprogram youself to rest every 15 min but it helps to see how far
you can go to keep the fibro at bay. Magnisum helps with the muscle soreness
ask your dr if it will be ok to take with your other medications. Hope this helps
a little. Take care and read everything you can on Fibromyalgia Natural stuff
works better but you have to be consistant. Take Care
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Thanks for responding so quickly. So far, I am very happy w/my Rheumie. He won't prescribe narcs of any kind, 'cause he knows how easy it is for people to get hooked. He's right, but sometimes....... Anyway, today is an especially fatique-filled day, and I have to muster some energy for tomorrow so I can enjoy my grandsons. Then I know I'll be exhausted the next day, so will have to rest up the next 2 so I can be prepared for teaching on Monday. It never stops, does it??? I am still wondering how this came about. Perhaps from major stress within the last 5 yrs.?? Mom slowly dying from cancer, leaving/divorcing husband, daughters not talking to me for a few years (one still doesn't), and working w/ children every day. Do ya think those might be some clues??