hi everyone, im new here!!!

kirsty123

Hi everyone my name is Kirsty I am 24 from Scotland. I got diagnosed with seronegative athritis in December and I am still a bit confused and worried about the whole thing as I don't know much about it and my medication (naproxen) is not actually working at the moment. can anyone give me any help or guidance, cheers
Kirsty xxxxxxx

pols090607

hi kirsty and welcome, i'm pretty new here too (although not new to arthritis )

you're bound to feel scared / worried at first. we all associate arthritis with old people and the thought of taking medication for the rest of our lives terrifies us but i'm sure everyone on here will agree, slowly you come to terms with it all and your life will still go on and you learn to just adapt to situations and plan more than you usually would do for certain occasions.

i started with palandromic arthritis when i was 25, i'm 35 now and thankfully things haven't really got that much worse, the rheumatologist keeps a close eye on things with blood work and x-rays. i have been asked to consider methotrexate but still a little reluctant to start, although the guys on here have made me feel a whole lot less scared about the drug which is a really positive thing.

i take diclofenac 75mg twice a day, co-codamol 8/500 as and when and this seems to keep things in order for me although this weather doesn't help at all, i feel so much better during the summer months.

you will get a lot of support on here, there is so much information and who better to give it than the people taking the meds.

look forward to chatting, take care x

clairy

kirsty123 wrote:

Hi everyone my name is Kirsty I am 24 from Scotland. I got diagnosed with seronegative athritis in December and I am still a bit confused and worried about the whole thing as I don't know much about it and my medication (naproxen) is not actually working at the moment. can anyone give me any help or guidance, cheers
Kirsty xxxxxxx

Hi Kirsty,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm 21 and have had arthritis since i was 15.

It takes a bit of getting used to and it will take time to get your head around it. Don't stress about it is normal to feel the way you do just now.

Sorry to hear you aren't getting much relief from your medication you should go and see your doctor again and tell them that it isn't working fo you they my be able to alter the dose or give you something else. Unfortunatly it can take a few goes to find the right drug for you.

I noticed you said you were from Scotland. Have you heard about Joint Potential? Its baisically a programme that arthritis cre have setup for young people in Scotland to get to know other young people with arthrtis, share your experiances with each other, get support from people who have been there and just have a laugh really lol. The website is www.jointpotential.org.uk the next weekend is the begining of March if it is something you are interested in.

Stick with it and if you ever need to chat give me a shout.

kirsty123

clairy wrote:

kirsty123 wrote:

Hi everyone my name is Kirsty I am 24 from Scotland. I got diagnosed with seronegative athritis in December and I am still a bit confused and worried about the whole thing as I don't know much about it and my medication (naproxen) is not actually working at the moment. can anyone give me any help or guidance, cheers
Kirsty xxxxxxx

Hi Kirsty,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm 21 and have had arthritis since i was 15.

It takes a bit of getting used to and it will take time to get your head around it. Don't stress about it is normal to feel the way you do just now.

Sorry to hear you aren't getting much relief from your medication you should go and see your doctor again and tell them that it isn't working fo you they my be able to alter the dose or give you something else. Unfortunatly it can take a few goes to find the right drug for you.

I noticed you said you were from Scotland. Have you heard about Joint Potential? Its baisically a programme that arthritis cre have setup for young people in Scotland to get to know other young people with arthrtis, share your experiances with each other, get support from people who have been there and just have a laugh really lol. The website is www.jointpotential.org.uk the next weekend is the begining of March if it is something you are interested in.

Stick with it and if you ever need to chat give me a shout.

hi guys thanks for your repleys, got apointment with doc on 26th to try and get the medication sorted. and yes i always thought athritis was for old people. have signed up for the joint potential activity weekend, is anyone else going? xxxxxxx

clairy

Hey,

Thats great i hope the doctor can sort something out for you.

I'll be at the Joint Potential weekend. I'm one of the Youth Contacts i'm sure you'll enjoy it are you coming to the March weekend?

kirsty123

clairy wrote:

Hey,

Thats great i hope the doctor can sort something out for you.

I'll be at the Joint Potential weekend. I'm one of the Youth Contacts i'm sure you'll enjoy it are you coming to the March weekend?

what dates are the march weekend as im really busy in march so unsure if i can make it, have u been involved for a while? is it normally the same people that go to all 3 weekends? yep hopefully doc can sort something out for me asap.
Kirsty

clairy

It only started up last year so i've been involved since then.

Its the first weekend in March which i think is the 5th-7th?? You don't need to go to them all so don't worry if you can't make it.

Its great just to get to talk to people who have been through what your going through, i've found that while my firends and family are great they don't really understand what it is like to live with arthritis, and its great to talk to other people who have been there.

Are you working at the moment?

kirsty123

clairy wrote:

It only started up last year so i've been involved since then.

Its the first weekend in March which i think is the 5th-7th?? You don't need to go to them all so don't worry if you can't make it.

Its great just to get to talk to people who have been through what your going through, i've found that while my firends and family are great they don't really understand what it is like to live with arthritis, and its great to talk to other people who have been there.

Are you working at the moment?

hey yeh it is great to talk to someone in a similar position of the same age. ill have a look at march. im just a bit nervous about meeting lots of new people lol. yes i am a supervisory nursery nurse (on my feet all day though and my athritis is in my foot and toes so its not ideal lol} wot about u.ru working?how long u been voulenteering for? xxxxxx

clairy

Yeah i'm working as a mortgage advisor only part time at the moment, but i enjoy it. I can imagine being on your feet all day is not great. The kids must be entertaining though?

The training for joint potential started last March and our first weekend was early sepember last year. Its flown past. I was quite neverous when i started doing it lol, but it has been great to meet everyone.

Where are you from? I'm from outside Glasgow

kirsty123

clairy wrote:

Yeah i'm working as a mortgage advisor only part time at the moment, but i enjoy it. I can imagine being on your feet all day is not great. The kids must be entertaining though?

The training for joint potential started last March and our first weekend was early sepember last year. Its flown past. I was quite neverous when i started doing it lol, but it has been great to meet everyone.

Where are you from? I'm from outside Glasgow

cool sounds good it is handy being able to keep a job going even though ur constantly in pain lol. kids are fantastic i love my job, do u enjoy urs?i live in dunfermline now, cool has there been lots of training weekends? do u do any other events and things xxxx

caprica

I've sent a form to Joint Potential too, so maybe see you both there.

clairy

caprica wrote:

I've sent a form to Joint Potential too, so maybe see you both there.

Excellent have you heard from the doctors yet caprica?

caprica

nope! still waiting on nhs appointment, how hard is it to send out a piece of card with a date on it?! maybe they're out of stamps..?

saw GP again today and he keeps going on about how "i'll be fine, not to worry". how is he so sure, maybe he is a fortune-teller as well as a GP. ha.

anyway feeling pretty low today mentally, gonna try to take my mind off things somehow. lots of alcohol, i think.

kirsty123

hey cool, ru going to all 3 joint potential weekends caprica?will be good to put faces to names their.
hopefully u get ur apt asap as it makes a big difference wen u gt ur meds sorted xxxx

caprica

yeah i've signed up to all 3, waiting to hear back with confirmation of a place. it'll be good to do the activity one, i never went to any of those things with school and it sounds like fun!

clairy

kirsty123 wrote:

cool sounds good it is handy being able to keep a job going even though ur constantly in pain lol. kids are fantastic i love my job, do u enjoy urs?i live in dunfermline now, cool has there been lots of training weekends? do u do any other events and things xxxx

Hi Kirsty,

Sorry i missed this post.

We did 4 training weekends and ran 3 event weekends last year.

Were going to run 3 weekends this year and hopefully some social events in between times.

I really enjoy my job which migh shound quite sad but i like meeting people everyday is different.

If you have registered you should hear from one of the youth contacts over the next few days. They try to put you in touch with someone local to you.

You can also email me if you want my email is clair @ jointpotential . org (without the spaces)

Caprica you should get an email for on of the youth contact too. If you from around Glasgow it will probably be from me lol but feel free to email me too with any questions or even just for a chat.

kirsty123

clairy wrote:

kirsty123 wrote:

cool sounds good it is handy being able to keep a job going even though ur constantly in pain lol. kids are fantastic i love my job, do u enjoy urs?i live in dunfermline now, cool has there been lots of training weekends? do u do any other events and things xxxx

Hi Kirsty,

Sorry i missed this post.

We did 4 training weekends and ran 3 event weekends last year.

Were going to run 3 weekends this year and hopefully some social events in between times.

I really enjoy my job which migh shound quite sad but i like meeting people everyday is different.

If you have registered you should hear from one of the youth contacts over the next few days. They try to put you in touch with someone local to you.

You can also email me if you want my email is clair @ jointpotential . org (without the spaces)

Caprica you should get an email for on of the youth contact too. If you from around Glasgow it will probably be from me lol but feel free to email me too with any questions or even just for a chat.

cool sounds good, so you work for the project full time? or just voulenteering? I have had my letter and email so have signed up for august weekend, cant make the march 1 and i signed up for december 2 xxx