Susan’s Story

Like many people, rheumatoid disease does not run in my family. My diagnosis was one of those strange surprises, following on the heels of a great summer.  I am still hoping for another great summer one day.

Here’s the tale: In the summer of 2014, I was happily working in my flower garden restring some 20-year-old flower beds before a family vacation to Hawaii. During this garden clean-up, my right hand started hurting. A lot. I thought that I had injured my hand with all the digging and weeding and that our vacation time would clear that pain right up. Didn’t happen. Sound familiar?

When I went in to see the doctor about my sore hand, he was skeptical about the injury and thought something else was going on. It was amazing to have my hand hurt so much that I could not sleep at night. A month or so after that doctor visit, my left hand started hurting as well.  I assumed this was because I was using my left hand more to compensate for the sore right hand.  Poor assumption.  When I went back to the doc with this severe symmetrical hand pain, he sent me to the rheumatologist post haste. And another RA science experiment was born...

I am currently taking the following RA medications:

1. Methotrexate (current)
2. Prednisone (daily low dose)
3. Rituxan (will begin 7/16)
4. Folic acid

Here is the list of medications that were discarded or changed along the way in the past eighteen months or so:

1. Remicade 
2. Enbrel
3. Plaquinil 

And I forgot to tell everyone what I do for fun - collie walking, flower gardening, quilting, sewing, knitting and reading top the list. Right now knitting is a bit beyond me and my stiff fingers, but I can still hand stitch and do English paper piecing projects.