As a Stage 4 Cancer survivor I have now had a Rheumatoid Arthritis diagnosis

Firstly can I say I am delighted to be joining Versus Arthritis. As a cancer survivor I am a member of similar groups and very much value the support and friendships which can arise from that. In short I was diagnosed in June 2018 with Stage 4 Bowel cancer with spread to liver and bladder which was initially inoperable and had a prognosis of about 2 years. Some amazing modern chemo got me to surgery in March 2019 and I am still here today. About 2 years ago I began to experience pain, swelling and stiffness in my right hand which was diagnosed at that time as osteoarthritis. I got some exercises and have been getting along with codeine, paracetamol and Ibuprofen ever since. Over time it spread to my left hand but about the turn of this year it became much worse also affecting my knees. I got a very poor response from one GP at our practice but changed to another who absolutely got it. While the symptoms looked very much like RA they also mirrored a possible recurrence of the cancer in a different form. So things have gone very quickly with bloods, X rays, my first meeting with a Consultant Rheumatologist, CT scan and Colonoscopy to cover all the bases. My Consultant has confirmed a diagnosis of RA and agrees that we need to do the other work to ensure the cancer is not also back in the picture. Assuming that is all OK I will go on to Methotrexate and in the meantime I was given a steroid injection 2 days ago which has worked really well. So a new challenge for myself and a very steep learning curve which I am sure I will get great help with from being a member of this community.