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Just Started RA Treatment

I have only had RA symptoms for four months and been diagnosed for a shade over a month.

This diagnosis occured way too fast. I grew up around RA, since my grandmother had it as did my father and a few other relatives. I knew the symptoms and perhaps I was in denial willing to believe that that the fatigue, symmetrical hand swelling and stiffness was caused by hypothyroidism or somehow related to the ITP that I had in the late eighties. I had a positive anti-ccp and my physician told me that she was fairly sure that I had RA, but I believed that the rheumatologist would tell me that I had some malady that was more palatable for me.

I went to the rheumatologist, he examined me, looked at my blood work and told me that I have RA. That very day, I started methyltrexate and prednisone. The shock has worn off and I am beginning to accept the reality that I probably have RA and it may last for a while.

  1. Hi Bob, so sorry for your diagnosis. The anti-ccp is a good predictor of future RA activity and it sounds like that was the case for you. There is a natural grieving process that happens when diagnosed with a chronic disease like RA. You can read about it in the article below. Hang in there and I hope that your treatments keep the disease in check. Andrew

    https://rheumatoidarthritis.net/living/grieving-part-living-chronic-disease-like-ra/

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