Pain in the ??? (My Experience of Arthritis)

Member Name: loulou3

Product:	My Experience of Arthritis
Date:	06/07/01 (291 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Too many to mention in this short space!

RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS! Know much about it?
I didn't when I was finally told I had it at the age of 17.
It started when I noticed pains in my wrists and fingers when I had to use the computers at school. Like every other teenager I just put it down to growing pains or that I was typing too hard.
But the pain continued and started spreading to my elbows and ankles, so following my mum's advice (orders!) I went to the doctors to get her opinion on what it was. She too put it down to growing pains at first and sent me away with a prescription for some mild painkillers.

A few months later things were still getting worse so I was referred to the hospital to see the Rheumatology consultant. He did some tests for arthritis (blood tests, x-rays etc) but admitted that for some reason arthritis didnt always show up in blood tests even if they knew the person had it.
This filled me with confidence! I didn't think they would ever find out what was wrong with me. However the tests came back and there wasnt a lot to say that I had it but I was diagnosed with it anyway!

I started off on anti-imflammatory pills, corticosteroids and painkillers. They were ok, but nothing was improving, in fact it was getting worse. I had sore wrists, fingers, ankles, knees, elbows etc etc. Basically all my joints were starting to stiffen and were painful.

Some people think this is only an illness elderly people get so you can imagine the impact it had on my life.
Suddenly, I wasn't a normal teenager anymore, I was tired all the time and I wasnt able to do all the things my friends were doing.
At the height of it, I was in bed for 2 weeks solid. I still lived with my parents and my bedroom was right next to the bathroom but it still took me 5-10 minutes to get there and that was with the help of a walking stick!
I was in so much pain, that even the thought of having to walk somewhere would reduce me to tears.
My knees wer
e so swollen they looked about 3 times their normal size! Most people have had a part of them swell up before and know how it feels even if it's just one ankle. Apart from the fact that I couldn't bend my knees to walk properly, they felt like someone was constantly holding them out in the one position. It's hard to explain unless you've experienced it yourself, but the only way I can try and describe it, is that it was a feeling of tightness all around my knees.

Normally, synovial fluid (which is the lubricant in between the cartilidge of joints) will drain away, but with arthritis it builds up and has no-place to go so usually needs to be extracted by a doctor or nurse if it gets to that stage.

Luckily, I already had a hospital appointment on the 3rd week of this, so I had to get the doctor to do it! It was a little unpleasant. He had to inject my knee so that it went numb first and then use a fairly big syringe to take out all the excess fluid. It looked disgusting, but as soon as he had done it, there was an immense feeling of relief. My knee was still swollen but it wasnt tight anymore and it wasn't so painful to walk.

Since then, my knees havent done that but I'm having problems with the rest of my body.
There are many things arthritis can do to your body and a year and a half ago, it caused my spine to compress (that is also because I have osteoimperfecta which is basically a form of brittle bones that some women get after the menopause, even though I'm only 21!)
Im falling to bits!! lol
So I'm now an inch shorter. I wouldn't mind so much but I was only 5"2 before it started, I need all the height I can get!! lol

Anyway, I'm still on lots of pills and trying out new ones all the time to see if its the new wonder drug!
Not a lot of luck so far but I'm not too bad. This is the reason I cant work (incase any of you have read my profile before and wondered
what the medical reasons were!) Now u know!

Hopefully one day they can find something to cure this painful disease as it affects many people, young and old.
It needs more money to be put into researching the condition as there still isn't anything near a cure for it yet.

To fellow "sufferers", my favourite motto - "Always look on the bright side of life, things can be much worse!" (Optimistic view)

My 2nd favourite motto is - "No-one in life is a virgin, coz life screws us all!" lol (So true!)

If you have a friend or family member who has this, try to read a lot about it. There is a lot of information on every medical condition if you look on the net. Use search engines such as www.askjeeves.co.uk which will bring up lots of sites to look at. Aswell as that, local hospitals and libraries are full of leaflets and books on any illness you want to read about.

My friends didnt always understand why I couldn't go out with them and do the same things I used to which was upsetting and even now they still make jokes about me every now and again. Please dont do this, even though they are only jokes they can still upset someone.
It is a disease that can make you feel alone and depressed if you have no-one around that understands so be patient with that particular friend or family member.

Remember, however much you really want us to go out and however upset you are that we can't - we're suffering a whole lot more than you!

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