Muscle twitches/shakes during flares

I am still within my first year of diagnosis so I am wondering if this is part of RA or maybe something else.I am noticing frequently that my shoulder and finger muscules will constantly twitch, pulse or become shakey. This sometimes happens with or without joint pain. It will almost be to the point where my hand is shaking and I cannot read text on my phone. Has anyone else experinced this and is this a normal progression of RA?

Autoimmune diets

Any one who works full time & also raising a family have success in applying the autoimmune with RA. I have several friends who are doing a more holistic approach but it just seems like it is very time consuming & expensive. Anyone have shortcuts or hacks that they tried & have worked. Just thinking about planning every little thing that goes in my mouth & preparing everything just exhaust me!

Pain = Fatigue?

Ever since I was diagnosed and started consuming all the information I could about Auto Immune disease, I've been perplexed about why these diseases cause fatigue. It just didn't make sense to me. Just recently, I read an article by someone who also has AS, that really clicked for me. I may be slow to the boat on this one, but I thought I would share. In the article she says, "It takes an incredible amount of energy to be in pain all the time!" No wonder we are always fatigued! I never… read more

I was Misdiagnosed with Seronegative RA

Close to 3 years ago, my Rheumatologist diagnosed me with Seronegative RA in my hands , feet, and wrists. I have since been on plaquenil, sulfazalazine, MTX, and leflunomide, at one point or another. To make a long story short, I went for a second opinion to a renowned Rheumatologist in Dallas, and one most recently at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Both of these doctors are giants in the world of Rheumatology. They both believe I have been misdiagnosed wirh Seronegative… read more

Ifnyou do not have pain are you in remission?

RD is not curable so what is remission? I have heard some people say that their medication is working and they are back to a normal life. So how do you judge the effectiveness of medications? I found a report published with the National Institute of Health that found that of the patients who felt well and experienced no pain, found that their new MRI shows that they were still having significant deterioration.
I have experienced that too. Actemra had reduced my CCRP… read more

What words do you use instead of the general ones.

I never use the word better anymore,i always say "I hope you feel brighter" instead as we will never get better will we. xxxxx

Who are you sleeping with tonight? I sleep with someone different nearly every night, what about you???

Being ever the tease I thought this question will raise a few eyebrows...lol.

Seriously, there are so many nights where my condition leaves me listless and sleepless.. I turn over and over again the events of the day until I'm so tired that when I do wake up the following morning I'm more tired then ever before and this affects my day and just adds to my fatigue.

As you may have guessed, my post is meant to be… read more

Have you tried Cannabis oil

Have you tried Cannabis oil? My symptoms started a few years ago and two summers ago hit me really hard. So far I have been diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis. I am waiting to see a specialist to narrow down the final diagnosis which could take up to 2 years! Wonderful hey. When I got my first full blown flare up two summers ago they put me on anti inflammatories which did not work, prednisone which didn’t really do much, methotrexate which made me sick 6 days a week and made me… read more

Does anyone think there should be a continuum of options for vocabulary WAY BEYOND exhausted?

I decided that exhausted wasn't descriptive of how I felt, specifically the day after Methotrexate. I decided to call the unbelievable energy it takes to defy gravity sometimes: Earth magnets. It's like someone turned on a big magnet and I am made of metal. I simply can't defy gravity. So now we have vocabulary that extends beyond EXHAUSTED.

Saving money on a new sofa

What do you do when your knees no longer allow you to get up off the sofa, change the sofa? Maybe not.....

I paid a fortune on a sofa set about five years ago that to be honest it was going to be the last one I ever wanted to buy.

So being diagnosed with RA where now my knees are no longer as strong as they were to get my size ZERO body ( size zero body, yeah right) Up off the sofa the prospect of changing the sofa it is not something I want to do....

So I have found an alternative… read more