Since I was a toddler I have had pains in my wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles as well as lesser pains in other parts of my body which still hurt me but the main joints really did affect me more.
As I was getting older my family and I started to notice the change in my fingers, we thought this was because of someone jamming my fingers in the door but we have looked back in photos and noticed that my fingers were going like that before my fingers were jammed in the door.
My mum would take me to the doctors to see if they could with what was happening to me, so I would be getting blood tests done and they would come back all OK, so my doctor(s) would just tell me it was
growing pains which is something my parents didn't believe was happening to me.
When I got into my teens the pains were still there and by this time I started to lose my balance and fall over more easily, so we went back to the doctors and they basically did the same thing again and again and told us it was
growing pains which should have stopped by now since I was in my teens..
After we had moved house and I was turning 16 we decided to go to the new doctors as I was still having pain in all my joints, falling over/losing my balance and starting to seize up. Again I had blood tests done which (surprise, surprise) came back all OK, but my new doctor didn't just tell us what we heard before she told us that I had Hypermobility Syndrome; which we had never heard of and most doctors had not heard of it but it was starting to get more notice at that time.
So she booked me an appointment at the hospital to see the Rheumatoid specialist to get another opinion and to see if there was any signs of Arthritis as this is what Hypermobility syndrome (HMS) can do over time. The specialist said it was HMS and that there were a few signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) in my fingers.
It has taken 7(ish) years to find the right medication for me, one that did not make me feel sick as soon as it was near my mouth, made me really depressed or did nothing at all. I am still having a little trouble with the new medication as it makes me want to be sick but not as bad as the other ones.
It was around last year when I was to see the specialist just to have a catch up on things, when I was telling him a few of my problems he diagnosed me with another condition Fibromyalgia. Which is not good, but he did tell me that my RA is going into remission (starting to calm down and reduce) which is brilliant but I still have to be careful in case it decides to come back.
I do have other health problems - Polycystic ovaries which I have had since I was 16 and Irritable Bladder Syndrome which I had for 3 - 4 (ish) years.
