June 1, 2015 will be a day I remember my
whole life. That is when I received my
official diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
It took 5 months, which is a very short period of time. There are many people with rheumatoid
arthritis who go undiagnosed and or misdiagnosed for years before receiving a
diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. I was
misdiagnosed in the beginning, but I listen to my body very well. I knew it was more. Fortunately, my primary care physician
listened to my concerns as well. He
didn’t brush off my symptoms. He didn’t
tell me it was all in my head. He didn’t
throw a diagnosis at me without doing any kind of workup. It makes a world of difference when you have
a great primary care physician like mine.
My story began probably much earlier than I
realize, but when my health regarding my joints started to concern me was in February
2015. Some of our close friends had
moved to a different part of the state, about three hours north of us. We hadn’t seen them since they left about 9 months prior. In early February, my husband and I planned a weekend trip to go see them. It was so much fun. We are always cracking jokes and laughing so
hard our stomachs hurt. They have three
wonderful, beautiful children that we adore.
There is never a dull moment when we visit with them.
We were having a great weekend. I believe we smoked a huge piece of pork that
weekend, we drank, we laughed, and just had a great time. On our last evening there, I developed a pain
in my right wrist. Did I hurt
myself? I am clumsy so I very well could
have. As the sun set and the stars came
out, the pain was getting worse. It had
moved up my arm and I could feel pain to my elbow. Seriously, what the heck did I do to
myself? I was concerned. I had to go to work in a day or so and my job
is 100% computer based. I wanted to go
get seen and within a few hours I could not move my wrist, but I was not going
to pay out of network costs for wrist pain. I decided to suck it up and I would get seen
when I return home the next afternoon.
Just when I thought the pain could not get any worse, I was proven
wrong. By the time it came to go to bed
I couldn’t move my wrist or my fingers.
I was in so much pain and the inflammation/swelling was the worst I have
ever had. It was so bad, the touch of
the sheet on my wrist/hand only exacerbated the situation. A sheet, really? I was really concerned, but
I was dumbfounded because I did not injury myself.
Upon our return home, I went to the emergency
department. I had to work the next day
and that was impossible if I could not move my hand, fingers, or wrist. I was seen by a doctor who just looked at me
and diagnosed me with tendonitis. The
doctor had given me a sling to immobilize my wrist and told me to take
Ibuprofen for the pain and swelling. At
the time, this seemed like a very probable, legitimate diagnosis for me. I am a medical coder, and prior to that I was
a medical transcriptionist for 5 years.
Computer work is the foundation of my career. Tendonitis, carpal tunnel, something I would
not be surprised with given my career.
I followed up with my primary care physician. Some x-rays were done and he agreed with the
diagnosis of tendonitis.
That was February 2015. After that, the flood gates opened. I ended up having similar symptoms develop in
both wrists, neck, right shoulder, right hip, both knees, and both feet. This was not tendonitis. I would be more inclined to believe it was if
it was just my right wrist and no other joints were involved. I knew something more was going on. My physician started to think the same. I couldn’t suffer any more at work. It was agonizing to work through debilitating
pain and swelling. There were some
evenings I could not prepare our dinner because I couldn’t cut through a
cucumber to save my life. My husband was
such an amazing support through this time.
He learned to identify when I was having issues and he knew I wouldn’t
ask him for help and that I would just suck it up. There were many times he came behind me and
took the knife out of my hand and made dinner.
I was disheartened by my struggles.
I was a 27-year-old woman, why is my body doing this to me. I couldn’t do the things I loved
anymore. I couldn’t hike, fish, make
jewelry, and had trouble cooking.
Fatigue and tiredness just overwhelmed me and I was falling asleep at
7/8 in the evening most nights. During the day I felt like I could take a nap just by putting my head down. I am the type of person who cannot take a nap so this was surprising. There
was more going on and I knew it was time to do more tests.
In late May 2015 my doctor decided to run
blood work for rheumatoid arthritis. He
mentioned that they would take a lot of blood, and by golly they sure did take
a lot of blood. It was around 12 vials
of blood that the lab drew and sent off for testing. Then, on June 1, 2015 I received a call from
my doctor diagnosing me with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. I went back to see him a few days later to
discuss the diagnosis and start medical therapy.
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