We'll start at the beginning of the pregnancy. Of course I got morning sickness around week 6 or so. By week 8 my arthritis started to really flare up as well. One day I was fine and thinking that I didn't feel so bad being on 10 mg of prednisone/day, the next I wake up with morning stiffness that lasted for hours. Gradually as the weeks went on, my joints got worse. What started as a couple hours of being stiff turned into most of the day.

My grandfather had RA and I remember when he used to talk about the weather affecting how his day would be. That could not have been closer to the truth. Last fall in Pennsylvania, we had a hurricane that came through in August. We ended up with massive floods and more rainy days than dry throughout the fall. This also helped to make my flares worse. Gradually as the weeks went on and I started to gain weight with the pregnancy, my joints got worse.

At the time I was working 3 days, 12 hrs each shift. It got to the point where I could barely make it to work some days and thankfully FMLA helped me keep my job. After 2 months of suffering I made an appointment with a new rheumatologist. She told me that my RA was progressing and put me on disability from work so I could rest. At this point, we were still hoping the RA would go into remission and ease the pain for the rest of the pregnancy.

By my 4th month of pregnancy, I could no longer wear jeans or shoes. My knees, feet and ankles were so swollen nothing would fit but sweat pants and slippers. There were some days where I would be stuck on the couch or the toilet and could not get myself up. I actually needed to call my husband for help to move. Nothing will put you in a depressed mood faster than having to tell your almost 3 year old daughter to go get Daddy because Momma is stuck on the toilet.

Before I was diagnosed with RA, I was a VERY independent person. Not usually asking for help and doing things myself. To suddenly be so dependent on someone else for help caused me to start to become a very sad and angry person. I started to be short tempered with my husband and sometimes my daughter. I didn't know how to cope with the fact that I couldn't clean the house, get the laundry done or potty train like a normal wife and mother. It was a struggle to get up off of the couch to try and make lunch. At this time I also started to pull away from my husband. I didn't want him seeing me as being weak or unable to do things I normally could. I knew it was wrong to do this to him, but it happened and I became more miserable because of it. All this started a downward slide....

Like my mom always says, "If Momma ain't happy, nobody is happy"..... that couldn't be closer to the truth for the next 5 months.....

Start of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Well, I never thought I would be the person to start a blog, but after this past year I am hoping I can help just one person if they have to go through what I did. To start at the beginning...

Last March (2011) I started having pain in my right wrist that the doctor thought was the start of carpal tunnel. I was put on medicine and it went away for a week. Unfortunately, the pain came back in both wrists and I gave the doctor a call again. He put me on different medicine and decided to see if it goes away with rest away from the computer. This time the pain did not go away and started to hurt in my knees. I scheduled a visit to my primary care doctor where he did a check of my joints and a blood test. The blood test came back positive for Rheumatoid Factor and with both sides of my body being affected I was referred to a rheumatologist.

At the time, I was working as a production supervisor in a cold warehouse where temperatures were around a constant 33 degrees. Unfortunately, working 50 hours a week in the cold temperatures escalated my RA to the point where it started to progress faster than it normally would. I had a decision to make - I could either keep my position and be in constant pain at work or take a pay cut to work in an office environment away from the elements. I chose to take the pay cut and hopefully get myself better.

The rheumatologist started me out on prednisone to help with the pain and flare ups. He gave me a couple months to research the RA and medicines to see my thoughts on what kind of treatment I would want. The big surprise came in June when I found out that I was pregnant with my second child. We immediately lowered my dose of prednisone to 10 mg a day. The rheumatologist told me that most women will go into remission when pregnant and I should be fine throughout my pregnancy. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened to me. Just when the morning sickness was in full swing, my RA flared up to the point where I could barely get off the couch. My original rheumatologist did not have concerns about my flare up and wanted to see me in a couple months. I immediately switched to another doctor who wanted to monitor me closely while pregnant.

I was told by my new rheumatologist that I was one of the small percentage of women that the RA gets worse when pregnant. She gave me options of certain pills I might be able to take to help the flares but there was always a chance that the baby could be hurt. I immediately turned the idea down and decided to try and get through the pregnancy with as little medication as possible. I wanted a healthy baby.

Once I started to research RA and being pregnant it was clear that there isn't much information out there on women who do not go into remission. Everywhere I looked I found articles on how good these women felt and how great their RA was doing. I found it very difficult to find someone that was worse and flaring up.

I hope sharing my experience of being pregnant with active RA can help just one woman that is going through the same. I've been there, done that and survived. I now have a healthy newborn sleeping next to me while I start my blog.....