Hi,

I am 26 years old and I am developing RA. It started suddenly in December last year when I woke up one morning with painful stiff hands and fingers. My ex fiancee had ended our relationship a few days before so I assumed I had been clenching my hands in the night with stress and tension as I was so upset. This happened every morning (and still does) from then onwards. I went to my GP who told me to take ibuprofen & paracetomol several times a day. That didn't work, so I returned. He has done blood tests which revealed I have"sero negative rheumatoid arthritis" which means I have a less severe case of rheumatoid arthritis and less disability.

At the moment I mainly get the pain in my hands & wrists but if I sit for long periods I get the pain in my ankles, knees, feet, toes, shoulders, elbows and neck. I am currently taking anti-inflammatory's for the pain which are not working and my GP told me to come back in 4 months for another blood test to see if it has got any worse. I can tell him myself that it has! I've read all the other stories on here and it's quite frightening how serious it can get. I was rather light-hearted about it until reading about it this evening, so though I would share my story so far but I feel stupid thinking of how minor mine is compared to the poor ladies who have undergone major surgery because of theirs.