So I'm not sure where I should begin. Back in 2013 I began having some unusal symptoms. I began experiencing numbness in my right arm if I looked down for more than 5 seconds. I also had a CT of my head after I sustained a fall which came back pretty normal other than "Chronic Periventicular White Matter Disease" I was having the numbness in my right arm and I was also having some minor aches and pains that I shrugged off for some time. My Primary Dr sent me to a Neuro who ran a whole battery of tests. He believed what I was suffering from was the onset of MS. I was placed on some medications to see if my symptoms would improve. One of the blood tests he ran was an inflammatory blood test which came back with very high results. Before anymore tests could be ran I ended up moving back to my home state. I had 6 refills on meds he prescribed so I was good to go for a while after moving back to my home state. Fast forward to 2015. I was seeing a new GP and she believed that the diagnosis of MS was incorrect. At the time no other diagnosis was made as my symptoms weren't there anymore. In September of 2015 after a few months of feeling particularly under the weather a day came where I knew if I wasn't taken to the hospital ASAP that something awful was going to happen. During that hospital stay it was discovered that I had Autoimmune Induced Addison's Disease. My life changed greatly after that. I was put on 30mg of hydrocortisone daily to manage the Addison's since my adrenal glands quit working completely. It's been rough going ever since. I have been hospitalized 22 times in 36 months. My Endo and all the Drs that I have seen say I have one of the most difficult cases of Addison's Disease that they have ever seen. My body can deplete over 300mg of steroids a day while I'm in the hospital. They say they've never seen anything like it. Fast forward to 2018. I was pregnant with my now 4 month old son when I fell ill and it was discovered that I had a systemic infection. I had Sepsis and was told that I had to be on 2 months of IV antibiotics and stay in the hospital. During that hospital stay I began noticing that I was beginning to ache all over. It was the worst in the mornings when I would try to get out of the bed to go to the bathroom. As soon as my feet hit the floor the pain would almost make me fall over. It took me the longest time to walk to the bathroom because my feet hurt, my legs were stiff and I was extremely breathless. At 7 months I was informed that I was suffering from Pre-eclampsia. I had never had it with any of my other children so this was all new to me. After delivering my son nearly 2 months early my pre-eclampsia got A LOT worse. The day after I delivered my son my entire body swelled up. My legs were so swollen that I couldn't even bend them. The pain that I had from the infection still hadn't left me. I figured that I was just suffering from post sepsis syndrom as well as dealing with pregnancy weight and swelling. Labs were ran on me and it showed that my SED rate was 80 and my CRP was at 10. They said they weren't sure why it was so high but they assumed that it had to do with my Addison's. It was also discovered that my hemoglobin was at a dangerously low 6.3 so I got a blood transfusion. 2 days after I was discharged from giving birth I was rushed to the hospital because my blood pressure was 220/134 and I had the worst headache of my life. They thought I was having a stroke. Thank God it showed that wasn't the case but it was discovered that the original infection that I had in March had not been taken care of and was wreaking havoc on my body. The 2nd day I was there when the Resp Therapist came in to do my Nebulizer treatment and it was discovered that my O2 was only 84%. It remained that way even of the day of my discharge 6 weeks later. Nobody could figure out why my lungs just weren't working properly anymore. I should also mention that I have heart issues as well going back a few years. I have rhythm disorders. I have A-Fib, V-Tach and tricuspid innsuff. So here we are and its the middle of September and I've been on oxygen since May 13th. The pain that I had has also not gone away. I thought I was still suffering from post sepsis syndrome or simply from being so immobile from all thats happened since March of this year. Every single morning when I awake and get out of bed to use the restroom the pain in my feet and lower body is horrible. I've just been telling myself that it will get better and my body just needs time to heal from everything I've gone through. I noticed as well ever since I came home mid-June that I can no longer sleep on my stomach. If I do I wake up in excruciating pain in my lower back and right hip like my back is about to break. I've also just put this off as my body getting over the pregnancy. Well last week something new began happening. I noticed that my ring finger began THROBBING in the middle by the knucle. I spent 2 days trying to figure out why in the world it felt like my finger had been slammed in a car door. In those 2 days it just hurt REALLY BADLY. On the 3rd day I noticed that my middle finger right next to it began doing the same thing. It would throb off and on all day. Nothing made it feel any better. I've had arthritis in my knees since I was 14 and the pain in my knees and the pain in my fingers were similar but the pain in my fingers was much worse. It was the same in the sense that it was a DEEP ache. My fingers had a deep ache but it was much more than just sore. Alls I could do was cry. Then on the 4th day the swelling began. First it was just the knuckles in both those fingers. Then it spread to the knuckles at the base of the fingers and the swelling went into half of my hand. The next day the same thing began happening to my right hand. By that night it was both my hands, a few fingers on each hand, both my ankles swelled, my shoulders were hurting and my breathing was getting a lot worse. I had to go up from 2 liters to 5 liters just to get my O2 to stay above 90. I stressed dosed with my steroids that I have to take daily for my Addison's and this seemed to help some but I'm still suffering from all these problems. I plan on contacting my Dr this week to schedule an appointment but after doing some research and reading I do believe I have figured out whats wrong. I do believe that I have RA. What has me more convinced than anything is the lung problems that can appear before the joint problems even do. I believe that when the Drs thought I had MS back in 2013 it was actually the beginning of RA and because I was placed onto steroids that they masked it for so long. I never had my joints swell like they have been the last week but as I stated I've been on steroids for many years because of the Addison's. I have never dealt with pain like this before. The way I feel when I wake up in the morning is bad but in this last week since everything began with my hands the pain in my feet has become much worse. I've been on pain meds because of my spine issues for 3 years and my meds don't even put a dent in the pain I've been experiencing this week. The swelling has gone done a little but not much. When I take about 60mg of my steroids it helps with the pain and swelling some but not much. It got so bad Friday night with everything being so swollen and the pain was nearly unbareable so I took a massive amount of my steroids and today the swelling has gone down about 75%. The pain is just as bad though. My question to you all is does this sound like this could be RA? Over the last 5 years all my labs have shown severe inflammation, SED rate being up to 120 at many times. I think because I've been on steroids for so long they've been keeping this at bay. Nothing else really seems to make sense. I convinced myself that all my symptoms were because of the infection that I had for months but it didn't really make sense. Now that everything has become much worse over the last week and all the swelling has been more than apparent I know it's more than just the previous infection. My hands, fingers, wrists, ankles, feet, knees and lungs didn't get messed up because of the infection. Once the swelling and pain began mirroring the opposite side of the body I figured it was RA. I guess I would just like your experience and input on the matter. I understand that you're not medical Drs, rather just giving me your input. Any input would be great. Thanks in advance. I have left a lot of things off just so I could try to post this as quickly as possible. Any questions you have please don't hesitate to ask.