I just had somebody tell me this during a bad flare, and I burst out in laughter. I needed that this week. Anybody else have some chronic illness/RA jokes, memes, funny stories to share?

Hi all! I wanted to ask for stories of personal experience with rheumatoid arthritis if this is something they have experienced also. Because I'm 'hanging on' since beginning July and am at my end...

Next to aching/throbbing joints and fatigue, I have been getting nauseous almost daily since July. On the days with extreme fatigue, I also get what feels like heart palpitations, quickly out of breath (even when sitting).

Little side info: going to see rheumatologist today after waiting for 30 days. Am not on meds at the moment, so symptoms are not medication side effects.

Any personal experience about this topic is very welcome. My symptoms are getting worse every week and I'm getting at the point where I can't handle them anymore. So anyone that has any knowledge or info how to deal with it, is very appreciated.

Hello everyone.
I was diagnosed with spondyloarthritis in April and started on adalimumab biweekly. My pain over lower back has tremendously decreased with adalimumab. Since I’ve peripheral joints involvement complaints, my rheumatologist suggested switching to tabs.

Does anyone have any experience with the tabs so that I know what I can expect? The side effects and how to go about it and such?
I had a hard time trying to adjust with the immunosuppressants initially and it took me 4 months to understand my body and how it’ll work and how the future is. So, any sort of advice or help will definitely be highly appreciated

Hello all,

(TL;DR looking for advice on basic pain management strategies for hand pain as I wait for further investigation)

I have just joined this subreddit, and I have already been learning so much reading many of your stories about dealing with chronic joint inflammation. I'm 26, and a musician, and have been for nearly this entire year dealing with persistent confirmed synovitis in my right wrist (which I had previously had surgery on a decade ago due to a sports injury), which has now delightfully spread to pain in both my index fingers, and the joints of my other fingers on-and-off. While I don't have any stiffness or obvious swelling, the sites of my pain seem to be symmetrical (I've been tracking the pain for the last week, and it looks like both index fingers, wrists, and the smallest joints in my middle/ring finger regularly have pain at some point during the day). Often times, the right hand hurts more than the left, but across the day I will get just random bouts of pain in some joints, and seems to be exacerbated after doing anything moderately strenuous with my hands. Have already had a cortisone injection in my wrist, which only lasted about a month at best, and has now returned to the pain I had before. Have had some blood tests, which have come back seronegative and generally normal.

I unfortunately suffer from health anxiety, which never helps when trying to deal with relatively new chronic pain symptoms, but I can't help but think there is something more than just overuse as a musician. I've been to a hand surgeon already who has been hinting at potentially suggesting I change careers (yay), but is giving me two months to wait out and see if my symptoms change/improve. So far, it seems to be getting slightly worse, but I have very few things I can do to manage the pain at the moment. What's worse is that the current rheumatologist I've got booked isn't available until next year, so I'm getting slightly worried about my job prospects next year, especially if the pain gets any worse.

Would love some advice on management strategies for pain, especially if you're a muso! I've had a crack at celebrex which just made me feel nauseous to the point of nearly being sick, and OTC anti inflammatory tablets seem to just not put much of a dent in my pain. I wonder if it's even inflammatory at all, but who knows.

Thank you!

Does anyone else suffer from terrible indigestion!? I never had it before being diagnosed about a year and a half ago and it keeps getting worse. It’s almost a daily thing and no matter what I eat. It’s mostly just a throat bubbly sensation but sometimes when I try to sleep is when I will get the sharp heart burn pains. I get Avsola infusions every 5 weeks and they started adding Pepcid to my drip to help with it. I was also wondering if it’s the RA causing it or the Avsola? Both!? Idk but I need some suggestions for relief because tums do diddly squat and I can’t keep chugging pepto in the middle of the night.

My ALT has been elevated on and off for about 5 years. My latest results are ALT 96 and AST 54. Bilirubin, ALP, GGT and albumin are normal.

I have RA and Hashimoto’s. I started methotrexate (MTX) in March.

My ALT has been elevated "on and off" before starting MTX.....always below 100.... Rest all liver panel was mostly normal.... i will get the additional scans done in 2 weeks or so.

I am just anxious and scared on what can there be? If anyone has been through this - hope I am not in big trouble.

My 13-year-old daughter needs a hip replacement due to end-stage "bone on bone" osteoarthritis in the left hip. It was caused by juvenile idiopathic arthritis that struck at age 12. She has been walking on crutches for one year due to this and will not get better, so it seems we should do the surgery in hopes of improving her quality of life. I am worried because the surgeon at the children's hospital said that if we let the JIA get out of control, the implant will break down and not last. But the process of getting her diagnosed and treated (currently she is on methotrexate and a humira biosimilar) was extremely difficult and certainly management does not seem to be an exact science. As her mom, I have had to fight every step of the way to get this disease aggressively treated with a biologic medication. It's been quite a journey already. I'm looking for positive stories of good outcomes for hip replacement with rheumatic disease. Is there hope that she will do well and it will last a long time? Has anyone done joint replacements and still been able to someday taper off meds without destroying the artificial joint? Surgeon said there is a 100% chance of needing revision surgeries, but I'm hoping that could be decades away. Thanks.

Hi, I have a question about people’s symptoms around the time of onset or diagnosis.

The background is I was diagnosed back in May. Had cases of idiopathic random joint swelling since my teens (now 37) but at the beginning of the year when I was hospitalised for an unrelated issue, I noticed my right wrist had been sore for several weeks.

Then the joint of my left pinkie toe swelled. Sometimes a knee would be painful for a few weeks or my shoulder. A bad day would be exhaustion, that hit by a bus feeling and pain in many joints.

I got diagnosed after my GP tested rheumatoid factor. I saw a rheumatologist a couple of months ago but of course at the time of the appointment I wasn’t in a flair so he basically said come back in January and didn’t prescribe anything even though my pinkie toe joint is now permanently visibly larger than the one on my other foot.

The flair I had around my hospitalisation lasted from about January to May but a couple of weeks another one had started. What’s confusing me is that it’s nearly always the same joints that bother me, left pinkie toe, right wrist and the side of my right foot. Bad days I get knee or shoulder pain but it comes and goes while the other areas are painful for weeks or months.

My understanding was that the RA should be more symmetrical and it should attach loads of joints all the time in a flair and not attack these same 3 joints. My pattern seems strange and is making me worried I’ve been misdiagnosed.

Has anyone else got a similar pattern in the early days of their diagnosis? My father was diagnosed 30 years ago and while is biologic keeps him mostly symptom free, when he gets a flair it’s both hands, wrists shoulders etc. While I’ve never had any pain or swelling in my fingers.

Sorry this post is so long. The photo is my left pinkie toe today.

Hello everyone,

I’m Brazilian, 23 years old, and I have Still’s disease.

About 4–5 months ago, I started taking methotrexate (MTX) at 15 mg with acid folic 5mg, along with 30–40 mg of corticosteroids. Surprisingly, I didn’t develop any acne or anything particularly concerning on my chest, back, or torso during that period.

However, after increasing my MTX dose to 20 mg, I noticed that acne started appearing within just 13 days. I’ve tried antibiotics, adapalene, benzoyl peroxide, and a combination cream containing both adapalene and benzoyl peroxide, but unfortunately, nothing has worked so far.

Has anyone else experienced something similar after increasing their MTX dose to 20 mg or around that range? If so, were you able to get the acne under control or reverse it?

Honestly, this has been worrying me because the acne is much worse than anything I experienced as a teenager—and I barely had any acne back then. I definitely wasn’t prepared for this.

I’ll also be switching to a biologic soon. The medication is called tocilizumab (Actemra).

For those who have experience with it: did tocilizumab make your acne better, worse, or did it have no noticeable effect?

I’d really appreciate hearing about anyone’s experience with this. Thank you!

Hey guys, I'm 19F. For the past month, I feel like my whole body has been clicking and snapping weirdly. I can mainly feel it my left wrist, but sometimes it clicks SO much. I also noticed by jaws been clicking more (although maybe that was there before, idk). My shoulders have also been clicking/shifting almost, though its kind of reduced. I feel like my left side of my body is more clicky, especially the wrists. My left knee has also been bothering me occasionally. It kind of comes and goes. I had surgery on my right knee awhile ago, and it feels mainly the same. Ig I've been relying on my left leg and my hands/arms a lot to do things since my right leg is kind of out of commission.

For the most part, there's been no pain or swelling with the clicking. However, my wrist was cracking so much earlier today, and it almost felt a little tender afterwards. No sharp pain, but its like after multiple clicks/snaps i could tell it was kind of irritated.

Lastly, I feel like my appetite has been really reduced lately. It could also be because of the stress though.

I'm really nervous about what this is, and I have a doctor's appointment soon. I guess I was just wondering if this sounds like RA and what symptoms you guys had initially.

Hi, this is mainly a question for those who take medication that is refrigerated (and live with others) Maybe more relevant to the UK :)

I’ve had suspicions my fridge is a bit wonky so I want to get a fridge monitor with an app, or failing that get a mini fridge for my room for my medication. Has anyone had any experience with this?? please let me know!!

Hey guys I was diagnosed with JRA (now JIA) when I was two. I recently was diagnosed with HS as well. Both are pretty managed as it can be (hard day to day but better than it can be.) today was a really hard day for me, I think I’m just getting exhausted. I am posting on here to hopefully hear some wisdom/advice. I have a lot of extistenial anxiety about growing up. I’m 20f and all I can think about is getting older with this disease, how a partner will handle it (I have a great partner that helps me and understands completely now but I get worried he doesn’t fully grasp what all this will entail as I don’t even either), having children, getting more diseases as I get older as a result, etc. thanks if yall have any comments please leave them below.

I'm 30 and have had intense knee pain for 10 years. It's gotten worse over time. At first I was diagnosed with peripheral spondylitis and took sulfasalazine (which provided some relief but at a very high dose), then my diagnosis was changed to undifferentiated connective disorder. I now take hydroxychloroquine. I had short steroid burst therapies twice and it helped so much. The hydroxychloroquine helped nicely for some time, but I think I'm in a flare now. I'm in so much pain and feel fatigue too. I take lots of painkillers just to get out of bed. Might be tmi but I sometimes can't get up from the toilet, like.. I'm 30. Life shouldn't be like this.

The worst thing is, I got MRIs and ultrasounds done and they can't find anything wrong with my knees. I have all the inflammation markers but you can't see it in my knees. They found patella dysplasia but the orthopedist just brushed it off.

I'm starting to wonder if this is all in my head?? How is it possible that I'm crying in pain when there's nothing wrong with my knees?? What's wrong with me? I feel like my rheumatologist doesn't take me seriously anymore and I'm so devastated.

It's impacting my work, my friendships and honestly I'm living in such a dirty apartment because I can't really clean.

I think I just needed to vent for a moment. Please tell me I'm not crazy. :(

Hello. I go for my 1st dose of Rituxan this week and I’m scared. What should I expect? Will the pain from RA go away immediately or will it take time? I also have OA. I just don’t know what to expect and I’ve been in my head about it.

Good evening, I am glad I have found this community, as I have felt a bit isolated since my diagnosis. I am writing to discuss what my life entails with an RA diagnosis at the ripe age of 26. I was fast paced and active before my diagnosis, consistent in the gym, loved to run, and felt that I had an unlimited supply of endurance. Now, with my current symptoms, I get exhausted shopping for groceries or walking my dog. I have had to quit my normal day job and am strongly considering taking a semester off of grad school. I am currently on pred until my I receive clearance for DMARDS, but how much do they actually help? I have read that high impact activity will have to be ended due to the possibility of triggering flares, but is this true? Also, I have began to restructure my diet towards a more Mediterranean style, which I have not noticed any positives from yet. How much stock should be placed into an anti inflammatory diet? I ate clean prior to my diagnosis (no fast food, primarily Whole Foods, red meat, protein shakes, complex carbs, and minimal sugars), other than my nasty nicotine pouches habit. How likely is it that I’m able to reclaim some pieces of what I considered normal from yalls experience?
Thank you to anyone who took the time to read this. I greatly appreciate any feedback, support, and encouragement. I look forward to reading yalls comments.

Respectfully, Nick

Soooo…I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop. My mom and aunt had RA and my brother had PSA. They’re not here for me to ask.

I’m 50. Long history of hypothyroidism. A few months ago, I had a weird armpit rash. No…I didn’t use anything new. Just huge welts and swelling. I didn’t connect that to what’s going on right now. This is going to be long, I apologize in advance. The rash eventually went away; I thought it cleared up because I switched to cream deodorant and powder. It still might be, who the hell knows.

A few weeks after the rash, I was straight up smacked with the most profound fatigue I’ve ever felt, low grade fever for weeks now. Mind you, when I first went on levothyroxine, my TSH was 165, and I had never felt like this. Now I realized that my stiff hands were swollen and I have actual firm nodules on my pinkies. So I had my first round of bloodwork done. My doctor was very concerned with how my hands looked and felt.

My ANA came back positive, 1:160, speckled. RF not back yet, but all of the other panels came back normal. The weird part is that I have always been very hypothyroid, but my TSH is suddenly borderline HYPER. And I feel like absolute shit. A month ago, I was hiking 17 miles. Today, I could barely walk around Aldi.

What do I need to look for next? Everything hurts. I had to add links to my watch band from the swelling. My ankles and toes seem to hate me. Could it be something innocuous?

Started on HCQ 300mg + Iguratimod 25mg. Anyone here been on this combination? How was your experience, especially side effects and how long did it take to work?

As of April 2026, i had to switch to the injectible methotrexate instead of taking the oral tablets to manage to flares and so far it's bee working.

At first i felt, great, no issues. A couple of weeks in, i started to get anxieties pre-injection. it was a sinking feeling of "oh no i can't believe the weekly injections are my new normal for good" and it just made me always feel anxious before i'd have to suck it up and just do the shot.

i brought that up to my rheuma and he actually told me we can try switching back to the tablets bec he didn't want me to experience anxieties but i decided to just suck it up and power through with the injections because it's working.

i just noticed now, i tend to get side effects after the injection. like i get headaches and i'm more fatigued than usual and it lasts up to 24 hrs. is this normal? that i'm only feeling these effects now months into taking the injection? there have been no changes to the dose, it's just 0.6ml.