The Starting of RA

Life is a funny thing. It is so cyclical. Things will be going well for a while and then poof...something will happen to knock you off your course. As it has been said, the only thing constant in life is change. On the other hand, when things are bad, sometimes it seems like things will never get better. In my life, this has also proved to be false, things always do get better. Realizing that this has been the case, I am very grateful for the ups and downs of life. Life takes many twists and turns, but every way it takes us can be for our own good.

I wanted to write a little bit about my latest bump in the road...rheumatoid arthritis. My symptoms began earlier this summer. I developed a stiff neck. At first it would only occasionally bother me. I didn't think much of it because this had happened before when I slept on my neck wrong. However, the strange thing this time was that my neck problem wouldn't go away.

The other symptom I had during this time was my thumb. It had begun to hurt and was very tender. However, I just assumed this was from typing too much and that it would get better as well.

These issues weren't very problematic so life continued on as normal. During the summer I had been playing basketball every Wednesday. This was one of the highlights of my week. During this time I developed three more mystery injuries. I felt like I had a pulled groin muscle, my left lower outer leg hurt, and my right ankle felt like it was sprained. I couldn't recall a specific instance when I had hurt any of these parts. Also, my right ring finger became swollen.

Now, it seems obvious that something was systematically wrong, but at the time these injuries just seemed a little strange. I began to see a chiropractor and physical therapist to try and improve my injuries.

As I was going to physical therapy, my knees began to swell up. One morning I also woke up and I could hardly walk. My ankle hurt with every step as well as all of my feet bones. My whole body would wake up very sore and stiff. At this time, I knew something bigger was wrong.