Is it just me?
Have suffered on and off with arthritis flares since I was about 9. Thought I had Rheumatoid until about six months ago. Haven’t seen a TA Dr in about 20 years. Just felt with the pain and occasional flares as my lot in life. My original RA Dr passed away and just didn’t want to search for a new DR. Have had a knee replacement for one leg and trying to wait off the other till absolutely necessary.
But now that I am in the throws of about a 2yr flare and having to seek care AND admitting to myself that I’m no longer 20 something and that I just can’t do like I did before.
My question here is... now that I have been re-diagnosed and am starting a treatment plan, is my pain really worse or am I finally listening to my body and not discounting its cry for help?
Seriously, I seem to be in way more pain now that I am seeing a DR than when I wasn’t.
Just wondering if others journeys have taken them this path.
Thanks for listening.
My answer to the question ... is it you? It it and it isn't.
The pain is real. And, in my experience, women are better at setting pain aside and going about their business then men are. I know my wife is.
But as for why it seems worse now ... it's probably because you're focusing on it. The mind is powerful. Too powerful sometimes. In another thread I've talked about my year-long quest to get answers about my left-side head pain and pressure. During that journey, the more I focused on it, the worse it seemed to get.
Now that I finally have a few answers, and am dealing with it, my family physician advised me, unless I have something serious (and excluding checking in with my rheumatologist) to STOP seeing doctors for a while. To stop focusing on my health issues and just get back to living. And I plan to take that advice. I see my rheumatologist on March 1 for my first Humira check up and then I plan to take the spring and summer off from doctor's appointments.
I'd offer you the same advice. Do what you need to do in order to get on a proper treatment plan. Don't shortchange yourself there. But then try to stop focusing on what's wrong and start focusing again on living your life. You'll be surprised how much the pain goes away when you're focusing on other things.
Thanks for the response. That seems logical. Hopefully now that I am taking weekly Enbrel and I don't go back to my RA Dr till the middle of May, I can put that advice to work. Have a big trip planned the end of April to Europe and I plan to focus only on that.
Again thank you for responding. Sometimes we just need to know someone is there that understands.
Mitzi
