A LITTLE ABOUT ME

The last few months I have been dealing with joint pain, swelling, muscle aches, stiffness, and fatigue that were getting progressively worse. Nighttime was the worst because the pain kept waking me up at night, and I would wake up extremely stiff and sore in the morning. I went to my doctor a couple of times, but she wasn't sure what to do for me. She finally referred me to a rheumatologist. I saw him last week and again this morning, and he has diagnosed me with rheumatoid arthritis. With rheumatoid arthritis, something triggers the immune system to attack the joints and sometimes other organs causing the swelling, aches, and pain. Last week when I saw the rheumatologist my hands were in pretty bad shape, so he gave me a cortisone injection in each hand and also gave me a prescription for Prednisone to help reduce the swelling in the rest of my body. I can't even tell you what a good mood I was in the next day because most of the pain was gone, and over the next few days all the swelling went away. RA can't be cured, but the doctor thinks my case is mild and being on medication should keep it all under control. He said I'll have to keep on the drugs for at least two years and eventually we'll see about easing me off to see if the RA has gone into remission or not. And hopefully that will be that.

For some strange reason, this little paragraph has been really hard to write. Probably because I'm used to bragging about my kids, not writing serious things about myself. Next time I'll have to remedy that!