What are your views on your RA please!

[zen4]

I am writing a book about my 50 years with RA and I wondered if anyone can help ? I am thinking about how treatments surgery and other things have changed during this time and it would be interesting to hear your experiences If anyone has time could you kindly let me know when your RA started and when you were diagnosed. what age you were then, which medications you have taken in order. any ops you've had and when and also a bit about the impacts on your life . I know its a big ask but it would be great to have other experiences Thank you so much

[helenlw7]

That sounds very exciting.

I was born in 1955. When I was a teenager I had awful joint pain so my mum took me the family gp. He said I had growing pains!

When I was 40, in 1995, I had really bad pains in my shoulders, so I went to see my gp in Birmingham, who asked how old I was. When I told him I was 40 he told me my age was why I had pains in my shoulders. I was absolutely fuming! The most annoying thing is that that gp is now the rheumatology specialist at my current surgery!

I was finally diagnosed in 2004. It came quite suddenly. We’d been on holiday to France for the October half term. We’d gone on a walk on the last Thursday of that week, and when we got back to our bite, I sat down for a cup of coffee, and my knees and hands got so stiff I had real trouble doing anything.

When I got home I saw my gp, and then my first rheumatologist. I has x-rays and blood tests on that first visit. It’s hard to remember the order of medications, but I’ve been on methotrexate since about 2008. I remember taking sulfasalazine and leflunomide as well as biologics - Eteneracept which worked for about 10 years, then Adalimumab which didn’t work at all, and finally Cimzia which I started in April 2024, and am still injecting.

The only surgery I’ve had is straightening some of my toes.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me if you want any more information.