I’ve had RA for 20 plus years. I read the inflammation can get into your chest. It causes tightening burning ect pain. For me it kinda feels like something is stuck in my chest and it’s very uncomfortable. What are the other ways others would explain it? It’s a concerning feeling

I have been taking CellCept for maybe four months now, didn’t change my skincare and my whole life I had normal skin without any major issues but recently I noticed that my skin became more dry and have redness on my cheeks, did anyone else also experience this? Or am I creating things?

Can I take this supplement or will it cause a flare up? Calcium Magnesium Zinc Supplement with Potassium, Copper, Strontium, Silica, Vitamin D3 K2, Boron, Vitamin B1 B12 Red Clover Herb Alfalfa Basil Pills

My Arthritis and Joint Protocol

1. Tirzepatide (or Semaglutide) (prescription injections)

2. KLOW Stack (BPC/TB/GHK-Cu/KPV) (InstaMed Sublingual Strips or Simple Peptides GLOW Sublingual Strips or Ion Peptide GLOW sublingual drops) (daily Monday through Friday off on weekends for 6-12 weeks then off for 4-8 weeks)

3. AOD-9604 (Ion Peptide Sublingual Drops) (5-10 drops or 250-500 mcg daily fasting for 4-12 weeks then off 4-8 weeks)

4. Cartalax (sublingual drops or capsules from St. Petersburg Institute) (one capsule once a day or 50-200 mcg sublingual drops daily which is 10-40 drops for 10-21 days on then 3-6 months off)

5. Cartigenix (Boswellia) (Calroy capsules) (one capsule twice a day)

6. Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) (Nootropics 400 mg twice a day)

7. Serrapeptase (Solaray 10 mg 30 mins before or 2 hours after meal)

8. Utzy Naturals Coll-U-Gen Powder (Fortigel Collagen & UC-2 Collagen) (1 Scoop per day in beverage)

9. Spore-based Probiotics (Just Thrive or MegaSporeBiotic Probiotic and Glycoterra Probiotic)

10. Glucosamine/Chondroitin/MSM (Now Foods 2-3 capsules per day)

11. Red Light Therapy (10-20 minutes twice a day)

Has anyone used Yuflyma during their entire pregnancy? Was baby okay? What extra precautions did you take when they were born?

Waiting for insurance approval to start a biologic, and in the meantime, have another new thing happening. When I bend over to pick something up, and apply pressure to my heel, I get this strange pulling sensation on the back of it. Very uncomfortable. It's just on one side but I suspect it's from all the inflammation left untreated. Anyone else have this? Google suggested it might be called Achilles Tendinopathy? My feet have been swollen for months.

When I was undiagnosed, I experienced incredible fatigue that only contributed to pain. With being put on hydroxychloroquine, I experienced a 50-70% reduction of fatigue. However I was still flaring occasionally with fatigue remaining as the worst symptom. Humira was a fatigue lifter for me. While I am technically someone who is seronegative and has no radiological evidence of disease, these two medications have improved my way of life tremendously. I can function around 85-90% of what I did before. 2 months lacking Humira really can put things into perspective. Finally having it shipped to me today. Never have I been so eager to stick something inside my skin 😂

I’m breaking all my glass food storage containers lately. I guess it’s poor grip strength. I prefer not to use any plastic if I can. What food storage containers do you all recommend? Is silicone a good option?

So, I started R at the request of my search for something better than the 70% relief I get from Cimzia. I did incredible on Humira for so long and was switched to a biosimilar by insurance which ruined the efficacy of these TNF inhibitors for me unfortunately. Was put on 15 mg of R about 2 weeks ago and I’m flaring. Hands are a mess. Feet are a mess. I guess Cimzia was helping a lot more than I thought. I have this weird feeling Rinvoq isn’t going to work for me. Any thoughts on what’s next? Should I give R the benefit of the doubt? I’m hurting it’s winter and it’s cold and I’m miserable 😑 I just want relief.

Hi guys!

I am in a bind!! I'm 23, and I don't know what to do about my meds. I'm on an IL-17 inhibitor for psoriatic arthritis. IL-17 inhibitors are supposed to be "less immunosuppressive" than most other biologics, and yet, in the 6 months I have been on this med, I have had 3 lower respiratory infections (one requiring a hospital visit). Bronchitis, pneumonia, and another possible pneumonia (I'm on antibiotics because my lungs keep wheezing and crackling). These have all taken me out of my life for weeks to months each.

I have a reactive airway disease/asthma-like thing going on. It's not allergy induced or exercise induced, I barely notice it unless I'm sick, but when I got sick before immunosuppressants I tended to get bad coughs and chest colds more easily that then came with these coughing fits. But I never had pneumonia before Taltz.

I want my autoimmune disease to be under control but I don't know if getting scary respiratory infections this often and this severely is worth it for me. I already do so much to avoid getting sick. I got this newest bout of possible pneumonia even AFTER getting the pneumococcal vaccine, masking with an n95 almost everywhere, washing my hands often, having an air purifier at home, doing saline rinses, having a good diet, avoiding large gatherings. I don't even go to class in person anymore. I don't go to parties. I only hang out with friends outside or in very small groups. I'm on a daily inhaler now. I don't know what else I could be doing.

Most of the other medication options would be similarly immunosuppressive or more immunosuppressive than Taltz, which is what I'm on right now. Taltz does an okay job at helping with my joint pain, and it clears my skin psoriasis completely as well as staves off my hidradenitis suppurativa issue. And I get Zepbound from being on Taltz, which is really nice and has helped me lose almost 30lbs as someone with PCOS.

But I just don't know how else to manage and I feel at a loss right now. Thank you.

EDIT: I have talked to my rheumatologist before and all they've said is "well we could put you on skyrizi but it's basically the same thing and you'd lose access to zepbound".

Today I had something strange happen. I had to stop lefluminide because it gave me neuropathy and then we believed it had stopped working because I started flaring and my number started increasing. During late spring and summer I noticed big time brain fog but I also was flaring badly because my medication stopped working. I started Orencia and had the three loading doses. Waiting to start injections. But recently I've noticed that words just don't come out the way they should. Today I had something scary happen where I said a word but it was messed up. I have noticed that happening off and on where I'm trying to get words out but they're not coming out the way they should. It's been a long time since I had a massive flare like this one. I just don't remember if this happened during it. Does this happen to anyone else? I also started having chin numbness and random neuropathy today. Just a weird day. I did get a steroid shot the other day for my knee and I know that can cause some weird things to happen too. This disease sucks.

Hi everyone. I finally got my seropositive RA diagnosis about a week ago. Ever since I started developing RA symptoms, I’ve had this facial rash.
It is honestly embarrassing. The white bumps on my skin are not all pimples, a lot of them are like…blisters?? Sometimes they’re present sometimes they’re not. The rash doesn’t really hurt too much. It does get really hot sometimes though. It’s ALWAYS there though and never goes away. I was just wondering if anyone who has RA has this rash. Thank you for reading pls be kind ❤️

I have been on mtx for around 6 weeks and have been experiencing noticeable hair thinning. I am already on folic acid daily. Are there any treatments or suggestions anyone has for how to fix this????

Trying to gauge what's reasonable here. Thoughts?

I'm early-40s/F and my boyfriend/partner (there is no good term!) is early-40s/M. We're outside of Seattle. Been with him since early this year (about 9mos). He's lovely. I was diagnosed in 2020 and have coincidentally been single until this guy. We're on the same page about most things...until I've now found out he likes a cold house! Lol I'd had no chance to realize this since it wasn't too cold out when we began seeing each other, and then it was spring/summer. He's now told me he likes to keep his house at 65°. The other day I was over and my nose and fingers felt cold. I've jokingly referred to his freezing house, we've talked about our offices and how cold/warm they are, and now I've fully said I'm worried his house is too cold for me....but we got pulled away and couldn't finish that conversation. I know I need to properly address this.

So my question is...having only dated jerks and only pre-RA, and now with RA and a good partner....what's reasonable here? If I'm too cold I feel sick and my fingers will get stiff. My worry isn't unfounded. But should I just...suck it up? Does it seem reasonable to ask him to crank the heat if I'm over? (Probably only a few degrees?) It's not every day for sure, so not like he'd cook in a hot house. But our fall/winters get wet and cold & it really flares me- I want/need to be cozy! He's typically very good about my RA.

I know I'm overthinking this but I reeeeeally only dated jerks; can't stress that enough, haha.

I’m 31F, have been having symptoms for a few years (some times much worse than others), and have a seropositive mom with RA. She’s the one who sees my symptoms and has been telling me to get seen by a rheumatologist.

But my medical provider refuses to do the RF or anti-ccp blood tests until damage to my joints becomes visible on an x-ray. That seems… backwards. Isn’t the goal to catch it before it does that kind of damage?

If she’d told me she wants it as a baseline, that’s one thing. But she’s using it as a gatekeeping technique for the bloodwork. If there is autoimmune inflammation, that’s something I want to know and get treated so I can go back to sailing for as long as my body will let me.

This isn’t a theory I’m pulling out of my butt; I have a first-degree relative with seropositive RA and I am progressing as she did. Is that not an indicator that testing would be smart?

Back around the beginning of sept, I started having joint pain, stiffness, and inflammation in my fingers bilaterally, worse in the morning right after waking up. I had a whole host of labs done including RF, anti-CCP, ESR, along with Lyme, Sjogren’s, and lupus antibodies. Everything came back normal. I saw an ortho hand specialist who did some X-rays that were normal, and he gave me a 3 week script for Celebrex. I’ve been taking it for almost 2 weeks, and I’ve felt little to no improvement in my pain, maybe some improvement in my inflammation but overall not much. Does this experience sound familiar to anyone else? Should I keep pushing for a seronegative RA diagnosis? I have an appointment with rheum in a few weeks

So 2 days ago I was walking at work, twisted my knee and tore my meniscus literally in half. Called an ambulance and at the hospital they gave me an xray, CT and threw me out hopped up on iv painkillers and told me to get an mri outpatient and manage pain with ibuprofen. The trauma doc forced my knee in a kind of straight position and then was like okay bye bye.

Fast forward the first 24h were unbearable , got an emergency mri at a private clinic today and the tech told me that there’s a shit ton of fluid in my knee aka why I cant straighten it and why I’m in so much pain.

I was seriously in tears all day because of how bad the pain is. In my country no one cares that you tore a meniscus and will throw you out of the hospital without a second thought, anyone else gone through the same situation, with the fluid in your knee and a torn meniscus?? What did you do, did it heal?

My Rheumatologist is closing her practice the end of the year. I have to find a new one. She is easy to work with, takes her time, asks me questions and will write a prescription as needed.

I have to find a new one so I did, I met with him yesterday and he said that he’s completely opposite of her, he doesn’t like to prescribe medication and methotrexate and Enbrel can damage your liver, duh, like I don’t know it has a black box label…I get bloodwork done every 2 months already and he says it should be every 3 months. He says his goal is to get me off the medication and he goes by symptoms and not bloodwork. His office is super close.

Would you continue to go to him or look for another Rheumatologist? I walked out feeling like I was a hypochondriac. I was having a really, really good day yesterday so I looked like there was nothing wrong. My ankles are still swollen but not like before, I can actually walk faster and not look like my feet hurt. He said there’s no joints in your ankles it’s not rheumatoid arthritis.

What’s your opinion? What would you do? I probably already have my answer by just asking but I just want an outside prospective. My sister said I should keep looking and drive 30-1 hour to find a better one. I want a female doctor, I feel the younger male doctors are on a power trip and usually dismissive or their bedside manner needs help. I like my doctors either old and male or just female, that’s my preference, this guy is young and male and he’s already rubbed me the wrong way.

Looking for supportive sneakers that are slip-on or easy to put on for hands that flare/hurt?

Has anyone with RA had surgery for hammertoes? RA has caused or increased foot pain and two hammertoes have become intolerable. I stretch my foot, as advised by PT, and wear a protective cover over the toes that have become stiff and blistered. I use a device to stretch the top of my shoes, distorting them, but it improves comfort somewhat - but they hurt. Between those toes and bunions, I wear holes in soft fabric shoes pretty quickly. (Shoes - well, I think I have tried all the brands with wide toe boxes, but the toes keep curling beyond the height of any shoe.)

Now my dilemma. My podiatrist will do surgery if I insist, but advises against it. He said those little toe bones, that must be fused, often won’t heal in patients with RA, resulting in toes that dangle down, and that’s worse. One toe is so painful that I even asked about amputation, and he thought that was a terrible idea.

I have been struggling with a decision. As of today I think I will skip surgery and continue to ruin my oversized and mannish shoes, trying not to mind how they look, and live with the pain those toes cause.

I feel better having aired my complaint here. We all deal with varying degrees of discomfort and loss of what was. Anyone having dealt with this issue, chime in!

Newly diagnosed here and struggling a bit with my skepticism of methotrexate. My sister had a bad reaction to it, and I’m hesitant to start it. I’m aware that doesn’t mean I will too. My rheumatologist is happy to do a prior authorization for enbrel, but warned me that they probably won’t approve it. Just really struggling with tan insurance company telling me what I’m allowed to take. I know im the 500 millionth person to struggle with this. Its just so upsetting to not be able to sit down with my doctor and make a plan of what medicine to take without interference. Hopefully they will take family history of intolerance and i get lucky. I know, i know. Lots pf people do fine on it. Not my point. I know i will have a dozen comments saying they did fine and just take it. My point is frustration with the insurance company interfering with a doctors plan.