My story

My life has been high stress since I can remember. My dad was in Vietnam when I was a kid. My first marriage was always filled with drama and stress . I later chose a career in nursing and decided to do emergency nursing as a trauma nurse.

I started having pain in my right foot 10 years ago but was told it was gout. So just accepted and moved on. My foot has an erosion. I had a nodial on my left elbow. I showed to one of the orthopedic doctors I worked with and he immediately said you have rheumatoid arthritis. Of course I did and in may of 2013 I was diagnosed. It explained a lot. I had many issues with what i called phantom pain in my joints. It would hurt 24 hours and disappear. The fatigue which I attributed to stress was explained. The journey began I have discovered many things. I am for one resilent. In unfortunately I can't seem to stay on meds long enough to see results. I get an infection after a few weeks and end up on antibiotics. Today made it three weeks on Enbrel and woke up with infection in my eye. It breaks me down. The impact of being fatigued and on pain can be overwhelming.

I hope this is something I can work through but I guess I am where I am supposed to be . Doing what I am supposed to do. Changed my job to less stressful one. My fiancé now is a life saver. If only I could get this RA under control.
Patricia Katz