Advice needed please

kay95

Hello, I'm 28 and have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have 2 children and am a single mum. I feel so tired all the time to the point I'm falling asleep in the middle of the day. Was wondering if anyone knows anyway I can get my energy levels up or is it always going to be like this?

Baloo

@kay95

An interesting question is it always going to be like this.

See what others say but it seems to me that remissions are possible, depending on how well things are going.

It's hard to say exactly how, but I find if you keep fighting it out, there will definitely be some good periods of feeling generally stronger and less tired. Lets see what others say.

Anna

Hi @kay95 and welcome to the online community,

Fatigue is one of the biggest challenges when living with rheumatoid arthritis, and add to that having two children, it’s not surprising you feel exhausted a lot of the time. Have a look at the link below, it might give you some ideas about how to deal with it and also how to talk to your GP for some help:

https://versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/managing-fatigue/

Do let us know how you’re getting on,

Anna ( Moderator)

KJWS

@kay95

It’s so tough. I was 29 with a 6 week old baby when I was diagnosed. The exhaustion is worse than the pain imo.
Does it get better? I’m not sure it does if I’m totally honest, but the children get easier as they grow up!

if you’re newly diagnosed be very demanding about getting the right treatment for you. Biologics changed my life to a point I could enjoy being a mum again. If you’re not on the right drugs for you this will definitely add to symptoms including fatigue. Pain is exhausting. Don’t just accept feeling better than you did but not good, like I did for about 5 years, then I changed drugs and lived a normal life for 20 years and went surfing with my then teenage kids.

My biggest thing I wish I could tell my 29 year old self is ask for help. Tell people how bad you feel and don’t pretend you’re doing ok if you’re not. They can’t see or know how awful you feel and they won’t understand actual fatigue v being tired.

Good luck, don’t despair.

Arciere

Hey @kay95

Take a look at my RA Fatgie Pick Me Up post - I’ve been suffering with terrible fatigue for at least three years and I too have a young busy family. I feel your pain!

What I have found recently is that a fundamental change to my diet has led to a fairly immediate improvement in my fatigue. I’ve always had a healthy Mediterranean type diet, but the changes I have made recently have really really helped.

I’ve essentially kicked out the following things from my diet ;

• gluten
• sugar or sweetener ending in “ose” (from google; dextrose, fructose, glucose etc)
• I have reduced my milk intake swapping for almond milk, but have still been consuming Kefir for gut health (look at the stuff in the Eastern European section in n our supermarket - it’s cheaper) plus using butter not spreadable products
• All artificial sweeteners - this has been hard. There are lots of products in the supermarkets that now do not have sweeteners or huge amounts of refined sugar. (I was taking a probiotic but that was full of fructose - so that’s been binned)
• All deadly nightshade - potatoes, peppers, tomatoes etc (I ate loads of this before, it was like our staple veg)

I got all this from. Rheumatoid Arthritis cookbook. It’s really helping so far. The fatigue can really get you down - just hold on to the hope that it can improve