Back story

I feel like my story begins a long time before I thought I had inflammatory arthritis (IA).  For the longest time I have had ‘problems’ with my body.  I was told when I was a lot younger that I was hyper mobile in certain joints. This was used as a reason as to why I was prone to ligament damage and other injuries. By the time I was in my early twenties I had ligament damage in my ankles and my wrists were always slightly sore.  Doing things like press ups or yoga, anything where I had to weight bear on my wrists was always uncomfortable. 

I was resigned to just accepting that this was just how it was with me.  However things kept on happening, I suddenly developed intolerance to alcohol, it seemed to happen overnight.  I developed thinning hair and eyebrows and my periods were extremely irregular. I was increasingly sensitive to the cold and I was always the one to be injured. A sprained wrist here, a broken finger there, and I’m not particularly clumsy. 

After numerous visits to the GP, where I was made to feel like a hypochondriac, I became convinced that I was suffering from a thyroid issue. My hands and wrists were by this point really bothering me, as was my sensitivity to the cold. My hands would become painful, winter was difficult and I have since been diagnosed with Raynaud’s disease.  However every visit to the GP resulted in something unhelpful. Mostly I was just told to take courses of anti-inflammatory drugs.

One was convinced that I had carpel tunnel syndrome, he referred me for a nerve conduction study and gave me a steroid injection.  The study came back negative and I had a nasty reaction to the steroid, yet again unhelpful.  Not one GP over the course of more than a decade ever thought to put all symptoms together and question the chance of it being autoimmune in nature. I was just told the ‘list’ of symptoms was unhelpful and they wanted just my worst one!

By this time I was starting a family and I managed to give myself a sacroiliac joint injury during my first labour. Sadly i had symphysis pubis dysfunction on my second pregnancy too, where I was on crutches by the time I was 5 months pregnant.  Both of these injuries took years to recover from, huge amounts of rehabilitation and at times left me very immobile.

Move forward a few years and I was at the fittest I had been for years. I have always struggled with my weight and was a serial yo-yo dieter but I seemed to have gained control.  I was lifting weights, something I will always recommend if you can. My past injuries were (as far as they could be and as long as I was careful) under control.  I was feeling good, I had just returned from a trip to Japan where I trained in Karate, and it was brilliant. I was excited to continue getting stronger.  Then I had bereavement in my close family followed very closely with a serious concussion, and therein started off my arthritis journey…….