Tell us about your symptoms and treatment experience. Take our survey here.

Balance Joy with Pain

I am 30 years old and recently diagnosed with RA. It started with pain and stiffness in my fingers and now the RA symptoms have expanded to my wrists, fatigue, and in my feet. Along with the RA I was born with a club foot and my doctor says my club foot is a residual club foot with hind foot arthritis and he wants to do a triple arthrodesis. Yikes! A mother of a 3 year old this is a lot to balance. Just today my 3 year wanted to play squirt guns something I remember doing a lot as a child how hard it was to keep my composure because after a few minutes my fingers started with the pain and stiffness. I have been on plaquenil and prednisone but I still get a lot of flares. My rheumatologist wants to put me on methotrexate however I have heard too many bad things about it. I believe it is very hard for my husband to understand I feel like I am complaining or weak because I will do something like peel potatoes and say my hands are killing me. I am so used to doing stuff myself and now I have to rely on someone or just not have it done. So hard to balance joy with pain.

By providing your email address, you are agreeing to our privacy policy.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The RheumatoidArthritis.net team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

Join the conversation

Please read our rules before commenting.

Community Poll

What flare symptom do you wish you could avoid the most?