rheumatoid arthritis

[sphinx]

Hi...I'm new here, and was wondering about others who may suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. I've been daignosed less than a year and not well controlled, in fact the past month or 2 have gotten much worse. I am due to add Enbrel to my med regime as soon as it arrives from the pharmacy this week, and not a moment too soon as I have got out on short term disability from work. I post on a couple arthritis message boards, but the more support the better. I am also an RN and am curious if there are others out there who have RA and are nurses as well....been having problems coping with the job..... :confused:

[debster]

I have not had mine diagnosed yet but I have all the symptoms. I was about to get a blood test for it when I ended up not having indigent insurance until June of this year. Sometimes I can barely open a can of soup anymore. Is there any other way to tell if it is RA or OA? :(

[sphinx]

I have not had mine diagnosed yet but I have all the symptoms. I was about to get a blood test for it when I ended up not having indigent insurance until June of this year. Sometimes I can barely open a can of soup anymore. Is there any other way to tell if it is RA or OA? :(

So do you have insurance now? The best thing to do is see a rheumatologist. He will do a battery of blood work, probably some baseline X Rays, take a history.......Here are some good resources to check out:

http://www.arthritis.org/default.asp (the arthritis foundation, loads of good info, chat and a message board)

http://www.arthritisinsight.com/ (info on many types of arthritis, chat and a message board)

http://www.ra.com/ (specific to RA)

http://www.arthritischat.com/ (this is just chat/message board)

You can find out the differences between RA and OA, as well as different types of arthritis, many of which are treated the same as RA. Even if you have OA, you can still see a rheumatologist, esp to get a diagnosis.

Important to know too, is that one of the blood tests for RA, the Rheumatoid factor, can be negative and you can still have RA. That's called seronegative. I'm seronegative.

Feel free to send me a PM through the site here, if you'd like!

[debster]

Thank you so much for these websites. No I don't have insurance yet but when I do I am going to get right on it.
Thanks again :)
Debbie