The Awful Experience of RA

I was so sick with fatigue, pain, and a variety of symptoms that I went to ask my primary care facility to test me for everything possible.

My breaking point came as I sat at my computer desk in a large insurance company and suffered from intense chills.

As soon as break time occurred I went outside in the 90-degree heat to get warm. My car was much hotter but it still didn't stop the uncontrollable shivers and bone-chilling cold so I turned the heat on in the middle of summer.

Struggle to get an RA diagnosis

When they tested my blood the PA could not figure out what the problem was.

I went to their website to look at the highs and lows. Three extreme aberrations stood out, and when I Googled the cause of those I called the PA to have her test me for those.

Liver disease, RA, and the other I don't remember. Sure enough, it turned out to be RA. I've had that diagnosis verified three times over as I escaped from one useless doctor to another.

What RA treatments actually work?

I was put on methotrexate by the first doctor and the pain and lethargy improved, but she decided to go solo and have patients pay in advance and be reimbursed by insurance.

The next doctor gave me methotrexate but after a while it was insufficient and he seemed not to know how to do anything else. He said he thought I also had fibromyalgia.

The next doctor did blood work, x-rays, and finally said that I had been with RA a long time. I'd wasted years with orthopedic doctors who couldn't figure out where my pain was coming from. This 3rd RA doctor had me on Enbrel injections along with the methotrexate.

By now I have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma also, so the doctors have decided that the RA will wait on treatment until the myeloma is resolved. God is going to deliver me. I believe that he will.