Seronegative Polyinflammatory Arthritis
Hello, I am new to this site, so I apologize for the long comment. I’m a 57 y.o. female web designer at a major medical center in Chicago. I became ill 12 years ago when I was 45 y. o. with what I thought was the flu. Total body aches. This morphed into cervical and lumbar spine pain, bilateral joint pain in hands, wrists, elbows etc.
My current diagnoses are: I am seronegative so my RA diagnosis turned into by Psoriatic Arthritis default, Bilateral carpal and cubital tunnel (told that it is caused by my immune system, so no surgery) Fibromyalgia, Hashimoto’s Thyroid disease (my thyroid is mostly scar tissue) Eosinophilic Esophagitis ( I have had 4 esophageal dilations due to strictures) Raynaud’s disease (hard to control) DD cervical and DD lumbar spine disease and Osteopenia.
I have tried an exhausting list of alternative and conventional medications and types of physical therapy over the last 12 years. I was on Enbrel for 6 weeks, and had to stop due to the horrible neurological side effects and a severe upper respitory infection. I will start Humira next week.
My job requires long hours of keyboarding and mousing, which aggravates the inflammation in my hands, wrists and elbows and spine. I am in constant pain.
I am to the point of applying for disability. My job provides me with health insurance (husband is on my policy as he is self employed), short term disability, and long term disability.
I am terrified of this process and want to go about this with armed with as much knowledge as possible. Since a few of you seem to have experience with this I was hoping to get some input. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks for reading this.
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