I’m 23 years old. I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis at 22. I first noticed signs of what I thought was just aches and pains from the position I was sleeping the night before at but was RA at 21.
21 years old and I know that sounds really stupid to think that the constant swelling and pains I was experiencing was from the position I slept in but I didn’t think it was serious at the time. See, it first started when I had really bad back pains - I couldn’t get up from lying down by myself or it took forever to pick myself up, it was hard to sit and stand up, even rolling over was hard, but it only lasted for a couple weeks then went away. A few weeks later, I woke up with sharp pains on my both my shoulders every time I tried to move it the slightest. That lasted for about a month. After that, my feet started swelling and it felt so sensitive to step. I was pretty scared of walking at times because it was really just so painful. That, too, lasted about a month, maybe a month and a half. From then on, everything just spiraled downward. My wrists started to swell and feel sharp pains at every movement. That’s when I noticed that these pains started moving around my body, mainly targeting the joints.
I didn’t tell my mom for a few months, which I now know was a stupid mistake, but when I did she took me to see my doctor right away and he referred me to a rheumatologist thinking I had Lupus or Rheumatoid arthritis. I went to see the rheumatologist at his soonest convenience and I was told the exact same thing the doctor told me, I had a crossover between Lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis - at least he thought. He never actually diagnosed me with either. He kept saying that because both have very, very similar symptoms it’s hard to tell, but he started treating me in the direction of having both. My blood test came back positive for Lupus but with no symptoms and negative Rheumatoid Factor with all symptoms. At this time, I was experiencing unbearable, on most days, pain from swelling and inflammation of the joints throughout my body, so the rheumatologist gave me my very first injection to fighting off whatever this was - a corticosteroid. Then visit after visit after that, I still wasn’t given an actual diagnosis but he just kept medicating me with these shots which would last for a few weeks before the pain would hit me again ten fold. My mom and I decided that this rheumatologist wasn’t actually working to treat me - he didn’t even know what exactly was going on with me after my first visit because he would ask me one or two questions then inject me and send me on my way; he was working to just give me short-term relief.
22 years old and I was rushed to the ER. It was a Sunday morning, my mom had just left for church when I was laying in her bed really trying to find some kind of relief from the excruciating pain. It was suffocating me. It took my fingers time to just unlock my iPhone because they were sausage links, but I called the person from my favorites my fingers can reach first - my eldest sister. I told my sister and she immediately called my mom, who came home once she heard. I have a history of anxiety and when I panic I start to hyperventilate and have an anxiety attack, so my mom called an ambulance. I was taken to the hospital still not being able to move a centimeter without crying. I was then admitted and seen by a rheumatologist of the hospital. I was given prednisone every 6 hours. After being there for a few days, I was discharged with orders of monthly visits to that specific rheumatologist.
I now see my rheumatologist every month or two, depending on my medication, bloodwork, and pain. I've been on a number of medication, but what I remember the most due to their side effects was PREDNISONE, methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and humira.
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