I Don't Have TIME for all This Pain BS!

I'm a 48 yr old divorced mom living my so called life in NJ. I have 2 adult kids who still live with me. I'm paid caretaker to my 20 yr old daughter who was born 3mos early & also has a craniofacial anomaly. She's undergone 19 reconstructive surgeries thus far. Thank God I found out I could finally get paid to take care of her! My son (24) has battled addiction since he's 15 in & out of rehabs & even overdosed in his room next to mine! Thank God for mother's intuition. I won't go into details but I busted his locked door down & called 911, did my version of CPR (not trained) & he is still with me today unscathed. Me however... I'll never be the same. As for RH...My knees started crunching back in my late teens. I thought it was funny making people cringe when I'd go up & down stairs. At 20 I finally had orthroscopic surgery to clean it all out. That sucked. I didn't like pain...at least not THAT much lol. I refused to get the the other one done. My Dr. told me I'd have lots of arthritis by the time I was 40 as it runs rampid in my family, but at 20 it went in one ear & out the other. Fast foward 20 yrs, 2 kids, & 1 divorce later I thought I had carpal tunnel, my hands, thumbs, & wrists were hurting. I had a cleaning business...so it only made sense. Well it was arthritis. So being too scared for shots I donned a pair of rigid thumb braces & lots of Aleve, and got away with another 6 or 7 yrs till the pains spread & got so out of control. I bit the bullet & went to pain management. Lots of blood work never showed anything. Injections, ablations & pain meds were & still are my only saving grace. As I've STATED I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS. My pain Dr. was convinced I had RA no matter what the blood work said. He sent me to a Reum. Dr. who finally put me on a weekly dose of Methotrexate & folic acid. I just took my 4th dose and don't ya know last week my new blood work showed RH positive, AND hypothyroid! (Both my kids are hypothyroid & are on synthroid, but their father isn't) So that's it in a big nut shell. I guess I too will be on synthroid. My pain is still off the charts ...mtx hasn't done anything but not agree with my intestines. My daughter can't drive & has anywhere from 3-5 medical appts per week. I'm beat. And before ya ask. No. Their father doesn't lift a finger to help and I don't have anyone to help me out besides my 78 yr old dad who can barely walk due to.... you guessed it ARTHRITIS in his knees!

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?