Hi, Recently diagnosed with RA,

TrainGirl
TrainGirl Member Posts: 2
edited 28. Nov 2023, 14:09 in Living with arthritis

Hi, I’ve just joined after seeing a link in a fb group.

Ive been recently diagnosed with RA after over a year of pain, immobility, stiffness and after a ton of appointments and mri, ultrasound, X-ray and blood tests have had confirmation on RA and a vitamin D deficiency as well. I have a hand that doesn’t work at all, and a slight chest pain that isn’t terrible but I can feel it more if take a deep breath. All very scary.

Comments

  • Sharon_K
    Sharon_K Member Posts: 460
    edited 11. Sep 2022, 13:36

    Hi@TrainGirl@TrainGirl

    Welcome to the online community, and sorry to hear that you have recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. This can be a challenging and scary time as you say. It might be useful at this time to learn and understand your condition as much as possible so that it becomes less scary and so you can build good communication with your rheumatologist.

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/

    I am sure you will find the community very supportive

    Best Wishes

    Sharon

  • frogmorton
    frogmorton Member Posts: 30,026

    Hi @TrainGirl

    It's an odd time being diagnosed isn't it? It's scary well terrifying, but also a relief especially if you knew something was wrong. Now you can start on treatment to hopefully improve things for you.

    My suggestion is to keep talking (to people like us rather than just to family and friends - they worry so much about us) and getting informed, reliability informed sites, like this (not Dr Google) it helps to know what you're up against.

    have you seen this?

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/newly-diagnosed/

    I'm so glad Fb lead you here because you are no longer alone we are all here for you.

    take care

    toni xx

  • janiebin
    janiebin Member Posts: 53

    I had a chest pain ( well still do occasionally to a much lesser extent) which was checked out by breast cancer, heart and lung consultants and then when I went back to my RA consultant he thought it was joint pain in my chest (ribs) which I had not really factored as a possibility. It hurt more to take any larger than normal breaths like when I walked up the stairs. So he gave me a steroid injection into my chest which was a bit scary but it sorted out the pain after a short while so maybe that is something to ask your GP or RA consultant.

    Do keep exercising your lungs and chest joints though even if it is painful because they are vital to keep us healthy. Same goes for everywhere really! The VA exercise/stretching videos are very helpful. I follow them most days.

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