First symptoms started when I was 44 years old. I kept getting tingling in my arms. I recall one day at the beach sitting in a chair , talking to my sister, and both my arms began to tingle strongly. I knew it probably wasn't a stroke because it was on both sides. So I ignored it at the time.
When it kept returning on some days, I went to my primary care doctor at the time and he sent me for an MRI of my spine looking for MS I guess. Said I was normal and acted like it was all in my head and due to stress. :(
(Later I learned it was because my RA was swelling in my shoulders and although I didn't have pain quite yet it was enough to press on the nerves and cause a strong tingling in both my arms).
One day on the set of "A Night At The Museum" where my son was a "stand in" , I went to get up to leave and I had severe pain in my right ankle. I couldn't even walk, had to get a cart ride to my car. :o Went to the docs and they put me off for two weeks for a "sprained ankle". THE ONLY THING WAS the pain was completely gone in two days. Hmmmm. Well I enjoyed the two weeks off.
One night I woke up at 3 am with a knife piercing pain in my right hand. I was in tears. I turned on the light and saw that my entire hand and wrist were swollen and red. I was thinking , is my circulation cut-off or something?................ I ran down stairs and got ice and taped it to my hand, took a Motrin and after 30 minutes of writhing and wondering if I should go to the emergency room I fell back to sleep as the pain subsided. My hand was completely normal when I woke up later.
One day I noticed my skin was turning red and heated on my wrist and was starting to swell. I went to the docs and they said "you have cellulitis (a skin infection) of the wrist" and they gave me antibiotics. The next day it was gone. Knowing what I know, cellulitis does not go away that fast. So I was baffled.
Another day I couldn't walk at my kids school open house. It was after sitting and listening to the teacher my right knee swelled up and it was very painful. That lasted about 2-3 days. The doctor said well you may have "polyarthrits" a arthritis that goes from joint to joint not on both sides. I didn't think much of it.
When I realized I obviously had something wrong with just my joints was when I woke up at 3 am with severe shoulder pain and stiffness. I painfully and barely got myself dressed. I was in tears. Realizing I could not even turn a steering wheel on a car I called my friend Laura to take me to the doctors. There I just cried and said "Obviously I have something wrong with my joints!" He wasn't a very warm and fuzzy doctor, he seemed very annoyed that I was in tears and in pain. The weird thing is, he could lift my shoulders up for me and it didn't hurt, but when I tried to lift them it was searing pain!
He prescribed me Prednisone.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I never felt so good in my life. I felt so good and had so much energy for once, that I cleaned my entire house the next day. He also sent me to a Rheumatologist who did some testing. I was not RF positive, but I was VERY positive on the
ANTI CCP test, which is known now I guess to be a better indicator of Rheumatoid Arthritis.
I cannot believe how clueless I was !!!!! My father had suffered since age 50 from RF positive RA and his fingers were severely disfigured AND my grandmother (his mother) was bedridden with disfiguring RA for the last 13 years of her life from Rheumatoid Arthritis!!!
I just want to say. If you think you may have RA don't be fooled by some of the descriptions of RA like "characterized by stiffness lasting more than one hour in the morning" more like "severe onset of pain at 3 am in the morning with red and swelling joints".
Also, another description is "a stiffness in the joints that is on both sides of the body at the same time" Well, if you read the above you would know that it takes some time to get where it is on both sides of your body. It may not start out that way.
Random pic of me and my husband on vacation for our 25th wedding anniversary in San Diego...
Remember to get your anti-CCP done if your RF is negative!
see ya' :)
