So many answers!

About 5 years ago, I started to feel "poorly" and just shrugged it off to getting old (I'm 59) and stress of a new and demanding job. I went to my GP doc regularly and he was ZERO help. I had two slightly deformed pinky fingers and I pointed that out to him. I also had knots on the joints of my hands and severe "trigger finger" in both index fingers. "Too much video game playing!" was his diagnosis. Despite these "diagnoses" I still felt that "something wasn't quite right" in my body. Finally at my wife's insistence, I visited a Rheumatologist who's office happens to be next to mine. Didn't take long for him to figure out what's what. Many of the symptoms I had written off to other issues were in fact, early RA and now I've experienced my first "flare up". I guess I'm here to thank you all for this site. I have gotten more info in my short visit here than I have gotten from all the doctor's visits and blood tests. So many of my questions have been answered through your posts. Thank you, keep up the fight!