Were you able to get an early diagnosis of your RA?

Read more: nras.org.uk/early-diagnosis

[medway-lady]

Yes my GP listened to my tale of this sounds silly but "my hands hurt and I'm really tired but I'm not exactly feeling ill just sort of off colour" . I blood test later that day and the call back next week to see me. Then a positive blood test and a letter to the hospital (I have insurance) saw Consultant then same week and medication prescribed. Unfortunately MTX affected my hair so it was changed To Leflodamide and after a few weeks of strange side affects it kicked in and some 5 months on I'm in remission. I have no pain at all, no swelling and just notice the odd bit of fatigue still , but that might be natural tiredness anyway.

So all in all a very positive experience, no one believes I have it but as was said if you were not taking the LEF you would not be feeling this well. I've made up my mind to enjoy life and go birdwatching, dancing, rambling and have recently gone back into fashionable heeled shoes much to my great pleasure.

Life is positive and I feel great. So yes most definitely early diagnosis is vital, I'd add that my DVT's and PE's are also thought to be linked to the RA so medication is vital for me, I also have to take blood medication Riveroxaban as my risk of more clots is high still. I have nothing but gratitude to my GP who did not fob me off and has time for my odd problem and also did spot my PE's and saved my life last year. From GP to hospital bed it was less than 4 hours.

[Jeanabelle60 in reply to medway-lady]

This is the sort of story recently diagnosed people need to hea more of. I'm just delighted for you and your right to take full advantage of your remission.....just remember to rest too though, your body will tell you when so listen to it but have a great time in the meantime, good on ya. Jean XX

[Barrister]

No, my GP didn't listen to me at all. For 6 years I told him that I had pain in my feet and he ignored me, even though he knew that I had also been suffering from back and neck pain for 18 years before that. Just said it was probably a bit of arthritis and to get on with it. It took for me to go abroad before I got a diagnosis.

[VickyBM]

I had suffered from stiffness in my hands for some time through my twenties - my nan had mentioned RA as members of her family had it - but like many other people I'm sure, I shrugged it off as just over working myself.

When the stiffness in my hands and feet became really painful I visited the GP a number of times to be told it was probably too much use of the computer and wearing the wrong shoes. It took around a year of me going away, trying to rest / change what I was doing and then going back for appointments to be told the same.

A change in doctor was a good thing - I think I've heard this from others too. She seemed to recognise the symptoms more clearly and referred me straight away.

This was around 3 years ago now. Unfortunately time lags between hospital appointments are large. I've been told it should be 4months between appointments to see how effective drugs are but this is usually around 8 months. So to date, I'm still not sorted on my drugs and am battling away trying to manage quite severe side effects along with a job and a family. My GP is meant to provide the in between care. Bloods are fine but it has now taken me 4 attempts to try and book in for a steroid injection as no one seems to know who is able to do it.

In short I believe there are issues but I can't afford to go privately so I continue to roll with it. I'm sure one day things will work out.

Best wishes

[Chezis21]

Very quick. visited GP end of Dec 2013 due to excruciating pain in shoulder and some painful toes - was referred to RA consultant and first appointment was March 2014. Confirmed RA and started treatment immediately. 2 years down the line been on various drugs/treatments and currently in Tocilizumab since May 2016 which has given me my life back.

[Hidden]

I would love to say "yes, all the doctors I saw listened to me". But the fact is "No". I was told that the reason my feet went to a size 12 from a size 8 within a week was because I wore pointed fashional shoes in the 1980's.

4 different doctors and for "absurd" reasons why my feet were swollen..

[Beaches2]

It's a yes from me,but then I had an explosive onset. Came on literally overnight, from being active and fit one day, to hardly being able to move with various joints swollen and painful. Staggered along to gp who did blood test. No rh factor which delayed things a week or so as first gp said it can't be RA because of that and because I was over 50.... He said that was too old to get RA ....I was relieved at the time! I know better now . However I staggered along again in a desperate state and got referred by another gp. When I saw consultant it was just 6 weeks from onset so I guess from reading on here I was fortunate.I started on treatment a couple of weeks after that once the rest of the blood tests etc were back. It took a year and trying several drugs to get things under control. Am doing well now thank goodness. I think it's probably much more difficult to get a quick diagnosis for those who have a slow,gradual onset.

[Sheila_G]

My experience with my GP could not have been quicker or better. Like Beaches 2, my RA came on very rapidly. After 2 or 3 days of stiff fingers I woke up one morning and my hands were stuck in a claw position. I got an emergency apartment with my GP and within 2 hours was discussing, with him the possibility of RA. He sent me straight round to the hospital for blood tests which he asked to be expedited. He rang me the following day and asked me to go in that afternoon for the results. He wrote a letter to Rheumatology and sent it that day but after discussing with my husband and knowing the importance of getting on mediation asap (as my GP was very clued up on RA) I rang for a private appointment which I received in 2 weeks and was given steroid injection and an appointment for NHS clinic. Within 3 weeks I had gone from being 'normal' to being on mxt and hydroxychloroquine sulphate. Not surprisingly my GP, who sadly has retired, is my hero.

[Chezis21 in reply to Sheila_G]

a good GP is worth their weight in gold.

At our works night out last Christmas our GP practice had a table at the same party night, my GP was pretty merry and had her arms round me...think it was because I have a business that makes cheesecakes and she was looking for a freebie...lol anyway she and the RA team have been thanked with cheesecakes

[Cathy777]

Mine came on immediately after breast cancer surgery. It took some time to be diagnosed as it was initially put down to side effects of cancer drug. Then was told it was fibromyalgia then finally, after many months of misery from major breast surgery and RA pain it was finally diagnosed as RA. I believe it should have been investigated more thoroughly but I guess the cancer clouded the issue.

[Karen77]

I feel like I got an early diagnosis (went to the doctor in early December, had tests, was told Dec 16 I probably had RA & saw the rheumy first week of January), but it feels like the treatment was soo slow. Rheumy took a gradual approach (starting with MTX 10mg and increasing by 5mg every 6 weeks up to 25mg). My RA symptoms also worsened the entire period. It wasn't until September (8 months later) that I started to see improvement after adding in Humira. So, I feel like even though I got early diagnosis, I did not get early/aggressive treatment. Too late now; it is what it is.

[nomoreheels]

My timeline from first symptoms to diagnosis probably isn't that helpful as it wasn't under the NHS but it may go some way to show how another EU country's health system's procedure works.

I was living in Spain at the time, 2008, but for about a month prior my feet were becoming increasingly painful & swollen. I'd blamed this on sitting on my haunches & my feet & toes being regularly bent for a few days whilst creosoting shed panels before construction otherwise I think I would have seen my GP sooner. It was only after regular nagging & being accused of waddling like a duck by my husband that I made an appointment with my GP. When I did see her she examined them & straight away suspected RD so took bloods which came back a couple of days later. Thinking back it may have been her special interest because she had a chart on her wall which she referred to when she discussed her suspicions. She asked me to request the receptionist made an appointment for me at the central diagnostic clinic, which she did on the computer. She gave me the appointment time & date immediately, this was for a little over a fortnight later & I had my diagnosis, seropositive. I was prescribed HCQ, celecoxib, nabumetone & a month's course of deflazacort (corticosteroid). I had my first Consultant appointment 3 months later where he repeated all the tests, imaging, examination etc & also diagnosed OA. Review appointments were every 3 months.

[MrsBones123]

GP was slow to recognise it, and kept putting neck/shoulder pain down to osteoarthritis (which I do have so maybe understandable) but when fingers/toes swelled, luckily I saw a young locum GP as usual one on holiday. He was more 'on the ball' and he arranged b/tests rf positive so he helped a lot.

Once it was in my notes I think it stirred usual GP into action as locum said he couldn't refer me to rheumy himself, had to be my registered GP.

Think if I hadn't seen the locum, would still be waiting to be honest.

GP sent letter to rheumy eventually, but took a few months and several more 'fingers still swollen' visits before he did.

From finger swelling to diagnosis this week - approx 8 months, but from shoulder/neck pain, five years.

(Why not just do a rf blood test at the first possible sign, it would pick at least some of us up quicker?)