Hi

Jock1

Morning guys, i’d just like to say hello.

I’m currently in the process of narrowing down which autoimmune condition I have by my Consultant through testing following three months of the most horrendous pain affecting most joints around my body.

Being a very active 50 year old training 6 days a week and competing in ultra endurance mountain bike events this has came as a massive shock and very hard for me to adjust to the current ‘norm’ and quite worrying what effect this will have on my family and work, cycling can wait.

Just started my first course of Methotrexate last Saturday and dropping my dose of Pendnisolne plus received a couple of steroid and local anaesthetic injections directly into affected areas including my old AC joint surgery which has got to be the worst affected.

My Consultant gave me this organisation’s address due to the amount of information and assistance that can be provided.

The physical pain is hard to deal with but I wasn’t prepared for the mental battle.

anyway, good to be here.

Jock

Poppyjane

Hello @Jock1 welcome to the online community

We are glad you found us as well, we are a friendly support group of people living with the effects of arthritis and offer peer support and lots of VA information as well as members' personal experiences.

You sound as though the last few months have completely over turned your "norm" and now you are battling to adjust to a new "norm". You are very fortunate to have had immediate treatment and although the Methotrexate will take a few weeks to show a marked difference, the steroid injections should provide you with some relief until then . Meanwhile you are no doubt undergoing more tests as the process of identifying which autoimmune disease affect you continues.

Many of us , when newly diagnosed go through all the scenarios of what the future holds......... Once we give ourselves time to draw breath, which you are doing now we realise some days you can just deal with that day because the fatigue only lets us just get through it. Other days we feel more able to tackle more and we have to be aware of a boom and bust cycle.

I attach some links to provide you with information about autoimmune diseases, pain management and relationships

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

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/managing-your-pain/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2022/february/relationships-and-arthritis-how-to-strike-a-healthy-balance/

If it would be helpful we can link you with work related information, but I did not want to overload you with too much! So do come back to us with more questions and I am sure our members will share their experiences with you.

Take care

Poppyjane

Jock1

Many thanks for the welcome @Poppyjane.

The past week has been mentally tough, always had a ‘ gets over it ‘ attitude, but each day brings another issue, another obstacle to challenge an already fragile and fatigued state.

Sleep, how do people cope with the lack of it, or at least quality of sleep. So many questions to ask and hopefully learn from other members experiences and if there’s anything I can offer or help with.

Work has been nothing short of fantastic, back at the beginning of March when things were starting to show, they organised through the company’s insurance, appointments with my Rheumatologist which started testing straight away. Being lucky enough to have the backing of my company has not been lost on me and I am truly grateful of this.

Jock