I'm wondering if it is possible that I have ra. I'm 23 and female. My grandfather had ra for over a decade before he died. My symptoms started almost 5 months ago with a bad case of hives. I was prescribed prednisone and felt fine for the 5 days I was on it. After that I had a flare up of hives again and just felt like crap. I was put on a tapering dose of prednisone for a month after that and once again I felt fine until the dose got really low. Since then I have been controlling the hives with massive amounts of antihistamines both loratadine and benadryl. I started noticing my back was stiff and then my shoulders started getting stiff. Some nights I could barely sleep because my shoulders ached so bad. For the last few weeks my wrists have been sore and one knuckle has been very tender. I've noticed my hands get tired a lot faster when doing things like playing piano or using my ipod. I've not noticed any swelling though. About once a month I will spike a fever over 100 for a day or two and then I will be fine. I've been tested for thyroid problems so now I'm wondering if it could be ra.