Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis

I was finally diagnosed with RA in June 2006.

For 5 years I was having 6 monthly blood tests and with each consequent one my ESR climbed. I asked my GP what it was he said it was a routine blood test. I trusted my GP then, I didnt know what an ESR was and he didnt explain, if I had known, maybe things would have been done quicker, but he failed in an all important blood test where we would have had a diagnosis.
I had two little sores that wouldnt heal, I was put on copious amounts of antibiotics and they didnt work, so finally my GP admitted me to outpatients at the local hospital.

I saw a specialist who in turn conferred with a dermatologist he took a biopsy and left instructions for GP to dress the wound. He dressed the wound alright, he asked me to get some sort of dressing and me being ignorant got it. Each time he dressed the wound the more irritated it felt and I complained I thought I had an allergy to the product, it fell on deaf ears.

Reporting back to hospital the specialist and the dermatologist were pretty angry when they saw the state of the wounds. It then becoame a weekly ritual at the hospital to get the wounds dressed. They tried all sorts of remedies and each one created another problem and still the wounds wouldnt heal. They finally put me on azothriopine telling me some people have a reaction, I had the reaction after it kicked in 8 weeks later lowering my white cell count to zero and no neutrophils I wound up in hospital isolated for 12 days. It was then discovered I had an RA factor of 385. Prednilisone and silver dressing fixed the problem and at my last count 2/4/09 my RA factor is now 85 should be 20 and my ESR is 42 should be 11.

I am now monitored every 3 months with blood tests and am on methotrexate weekly. I found this site by a referral from mybrokenleg.com yes, something else to add to my collections of medical woes.