Do I have RA and have I had it all my life...?

[tinkerbell22]

So I am a little overwhelmed at the moment. I very recently Finally got diagnosed with autoimmune hypothyroidism / Hashimoto's (after a massive battle and symptoms since a teenager, I'm 39 now, and clear hereditary connection). This is Huge for me. But now it's all tumbling to surface and I've realised that because drs for Years have told me my thyroid symptoms are all in my head, I've ignored arthritis signs too... now, with an autoimmune disease diagnosed it's all falling into place for me. I know now that having one autoimmune disease leaves you susceptible to triggering other autoimmune diseases. Also my mum has severe hypothyroidism and some rheumatoid arthritis flare ups (since her twenties). Her mum was crippled by arthritis and died younger than expected...

Is this my future or can I finally stop this attack now I'm opening my eyes and getting recognition?

I am having some blood tests for arthritis in a few days.

I'm just feeling, is this really RA? I've been told for so long that my symptoms are all in my head. But what if they're not?

I've had chronic pain most of my life (mysterious undiagnosed feet pains since a teenager) that stopped me living a normal life. Always had clicky thumbs lol but again ignored this. I get a weird achey feeling in my thumbs. In my 30s I've realised a lot of the feet pain comes from stessing and overdoing things. As I've scaled back my life to find a place where I don't have chronic feet pain, I'm practically bed ridden. Exhaustion has taken over in the last 4-5 years as unavoidable awful stress became too much... and in the last 10 years joint pain and joint clunking and grinding sounds and feelings have accelerated. I used to go to the gym but had to stop as I kept injuring joints (my knees especially) and clunking joints didn't feel right to exacerbate! So now I can't exercise at all. Exhaustion and risk of injuries. Even in yoga I kept injuring myself!

A few years ago I started getting stiffness and pain in my hands when resting and falling asleep. Recently I've noticed subtle hard nobbliness forming on both hands around the knuckles and first joints down from the main knuckles. And I've got Terrible dry skin (maybe psoriaris?).

I've found reaching up for items on shelves hurts, holding a large plate hurts, lifting a full kettle hurts, turning taps and opening jars aren't easy or sometimes impossible. My achilles make twanging /pinging feelings when I reach up for things. I am stiff at my waist when I twist round and have to do a few mini gentle twists to "get me going" so I can twist more fully.

Sorry for info overload I'm just trying to establish if this is all real after years of drs fobbing me off. Do my symptoms sound like RA?

[helixhelix]

Hello there, and welcome.

In my experience clunking, clicking and grinding joints are more mechanical problems - I have that in my joints that have osteoarthritis. But aches, nobbliness, stiffness on rest, swelling and all round fatigue plus skin problems are more typical of inflammatory arthritis. But you can have both, even at your young age.

And your pain will be exacerbated by lack of exercise /activity as strong muscles are the best protection for joints - so difficulty turning at waist maywell be muscles related. I can now identify pretty well what is causing my different bits of pain. For example, lifting a full kettle can hurt the joints in hands or shoulders (which could be arthritis) or ache in upper arms which could be muscular.

I hope the next set of investigations find a solution for you.

[Simba1992]

Thyroid dysfunction is often seen before the breakout of RA. Have you ever supplemented with iodine drops? There is a lot of good information on the net for treating hypothyroidism without hard meds. A very good book I recommend is " The Thyroid Madness". An other interesting new topic of research is the role of estrogen-progesterone imbalance in both hypothyroidism and RA, where a long time deficiency has been noted in progesterone levels. Could be of interest to check your estrogen and progesterone levels. Just a thought😊