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"Too young to have RA" he said

I’m 24 years old and have a very aggressive form of RA. I have been fighting symptoms since I was 17 but was always dismissed as a "whiner". Dismissed by doctors as a liar or "drug seeker". I was to young to have RA they said, so I must be trying to get pain meds. In 2014 after I had my son, I fell one morning and couldn't get up. I was 96 pounds and in so much pain that I couldn't walk anymore. My significant other rushed me to the hospital in a DIFFERENT town. Where I was diagnosed in 2 days and started on meds shortly after. After years of suffering I now have permanently twisted hands, thinning hair and damaged nerves that could have been prevented by a good doctor. Even after being diagnosed I still get horrible looks on days when I limp or especially when I go to the pharmacy for my meds, have you ever seen the looks from people when a 24-year-old gets a bottle of hydrocodone?? I've gone through 3 pharmacies... I look healthy but feel dead on the inside some days, has the pain and judgment taken such a hard toll on any of you? Because, around here I am an oddity apparently, too pretty to be sick and too young to be chronically ill. I don't fit people's ideal mental image of sick...

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