r/rheumatoidarthritis

How do you deal with work situations of being introduced and hoping the other person doesn’t squeeze too hard?

Hey everyone, I'm curious!

How many of you experienced weight loss in a short amount of time when you found effective biologics?

I've lost about 10lbs in 2 weeks (about 2 weeks after starting Enbrel). I saw my rheum today and let her know I'm super concerned about it (hell, I told my whole care team because I didn't connect it to RA), and she said she thinks it's because we're finally reining in the inflammation.

All experiences, biologics, and other med combos welcome! I'm just curious.

As always, I want to mention I have POTS, MCAS, EDS, and CCI. So I have a lot of overlapping symptoms and complex things.

P.S. I also just started Xolair today for MCAS. If anyone's on Xolair, I'd be real curious too!

Hi all. Hope you are doing ok.

I am 30 yo women and diagnosed with RA two years ago. I have been on plaquenil and steroid tapers at times the last two years but alas we are transitioning to biologics. I just had a baby on April 3 and so anticipating a flare pretty soon/ beginning to feel one coming.

Is there a good day you recommend taking your injection ? I am currently on mat leave the next four months but curious for other moms/working moms if there is a good day- I was thinking Sunday evening may make most sense.

I’m really scared to start it/ the thought of injecting myself really scares me and I’m trying to hype myself up as I plan to take the first dose this week.

Any words or encouragement or anything you do that makes it easier?

I’m sure it is more a mental thing than actual pain- at least I’m hoping.

Thanks all!

Hi all!

Had my appointment today and it was not as good as I was thinking it would be! I gained 20 pounds from lack of movement and I also explained some weird symptoms I've been having. Also, just the feeling fatigued and horrible most days. My blood work is going down but I don't FEEL better.

My Rhuem is not happy with a 75% improvement, she wants 100% as much as possible. She talked with me about possibly trying infusions in June.

I have only been doing MTX and Humira injections. She said that infusions are more potent and she wants me to try Remicade infusions if I don't see a better result by June! She said they can set the dosage for my body weight and essentially make it more powerful than an injection that is a set dosage.

My question is if anyone has had crazy results from Infusions over injections? I'm not sure about trying to switch so soon in my RA journey? I'm not even at the one year mark yet?

It's Monday!

What 3 good things happened to you last week? They can be **anything at all!**

------

⭐ If you are thinking "my week was terrible", then please give this a try. If you can only think of 1 or 2, that's excellent.

It's cool if you don't want to share, but I hope you'll try it on your own. I did this during stressful time in my life, and it was helpful to "make" myself think about good stuff. It's nice to do 3 good things every day. Reading other peoples' good things might make you smile, too! I thoroughly enjoy the warm fuzzies and smiles 😊

This post is always pinned to the top of the sub on Tuesday, so you can add on whenever you want 😊

Hi everyone. Since I started methotrexate + folic acid a month ago, I have started noticing a lot of hair growth - I thought I was just experiencing age-related hair thinning, but maybe not? near my hairline at my widow's peak area, and all areas up close to my hairline are starting to have all these sprouty little hairs (that are starting to make my ponytails look very chaotic lol), and I was wondering, has this happened to anyone else? I haven't changed anything else about my diet, supplements, or anything.

FWIW, I also *might* have psoriatic arthritis, not RA, my rheum is calling it RA for now until we know more, but I have had a lot of scalp issues/flakies that have also calmed down since starting the meds. So maybe that being calmer has been what has helped, idk. Just wanting to know if this has happened to anyone else, as I understood it, one of methotrexate's side effects might be hair loss.

I'm trying to pay more attention to flares and this is the pattern I'm starting to notice. I'm starting to document whatever this is so I can be seen by someone when I get my new insurance. DAE have similar symptoms? If so, do they progress in the same pattern?

As I'm fighting something like a cold or similar tame illness, I notice I'll be extremely tired for several days. So tired that I cannot keep my eyes open and fight falling asleep through evening routines.

After several days, I get a lot of pain in my joints and moving feels very tight and painful. It starts with being a little extra stiff in the morning, but just gets more pronounced throughout the day. By the end of the night it feels like literal bone crushing pain that makes me nauseous and dizzy. Last time, I nearly needed my husband to carry me to the tub and back because the pain was so bad. This can happen for a day but many times it's gone on for several days.

A few days later the joint pain lessens, but I'm still stiff and sore. I'll have this odd muscle fatigue where I have a hard time griping and twisting things. Sometimes I also feel like my hands just won't grip properly or fingers won't go exactly where I want them too, partially due to coordination and partially due to weakness.

I also notice that my hands get more plump somewhere in between all of that. Not a soft and squishy swollen, more like fat, tightly-packed-sausage fingers that struggle to bend. This also lasts for several days usually.

Throughout all of this, I tend to get shaky. It sort of feels like the shakiness after working out, but constantly and from simple things like lifting a spoon to eat.

It all gets worse if I am tired, but it also makes me so much more tired. I have to get a lot of sleep to feel better. That, plus Tylenol and heat for pain management seem to be the only things that help.

25F medical student

I just wanted to tell all of you lovely people that I upped my dose to once a week and it’s actually helping. I’m in less pain and I’m able to do a little bit of crochet. I noticed that I just naturally wanted to do it again. It’s not like remission status but it’s definitely a little bit better and that’s enough to be celebrated!!

I didn’t take steroids for 2-3 years, took 7 day taper in January, 10 day taper in beginning of February. I wear a Dexcom CGM (continuous glucose monitor) because I have a problem with reactive hypoglycemia, no history of diabetes. My baseline blood glucose is usually between 90-100, and 5-7 days ago (today is 4/20/2026 (lol)) it increased to 125 mg/dL. I’m not sick, not having a flare, no other symptoms. I’m a little worried bc I had my hip replaced 2 1/2 years ago and I know they can get infected. There is a history of T2DM in my family, but this would be a super sudden onset. Like I didn’t have it one day and I got it the next. So strange. I had stopped my hydroxychloroquine about 4-6 weeks ago in case it was making my hypoglycemia worse, but it didn’t seem to change anything, I continued to have episodes of low blood sugar occasionally. I’m a retired physician, so I really hate it when I don’t know what’s going on. I rarely worry about the bizarre constellation of symptoms RA causes, but this one has me concerned 😟

RA is overwhelming and can make us feel helpless. But there are 4 simple things everyone can do to be a bit healthier, which will help manage RA. They're totally under our control, too!

Each of these have their own list of information and tips in the pinned comment.

1. Sleep We need at least 7 hours, but 8-9 is better. Sleep is when we heal, and our immune systems recharge.

2. Stay hydrated Drinking enough water is very important for every part of our bodies, including our joints

3. Eat healthy There's no diet that treats or cures RA. However, our food choices can impact our symptoms. Cutting back on added sugar and fast/processed foods (aka "Western Diet") and  adding anti-inflammatory foods to your meals can help reduce inflammation. This can be as easy as swapping a hot dog for a chicken breast.

4. Reduce stress The fact that stress causes flares is a cosmic joke. Doing a puzzle or taking care of your plants aren't going to eliminate stress, but they help a little! There are lots of ways to help yourself relax a bit.

 

Have you made changes to get better sleep, hydration, and nutrition, and reduce stress?

I just want to sleep.

Prednisone has made that a distant dream. How ironic.

Shoutout to any others who are struggling to get rest - med induced or otherwise.

So, I finally got on an enbrel biosimilar after being diagnosed in Dec. 2024.

Since then I have been on varying amounts of Prednisone to keep my inflammation down. Between 10-6 mg.

My rheumatologist is having me very slowly taper down. My last blood test had my CRP at 2.0 while in 5 mg!! Yay!! I haven't been that low on such a low dose of Prednisone since it's been watched.

Right now I am doing 4 mg one day and 2 mg the next. But I am soooo tired on 2 mg days.

I just want to get off this crap. The weight gain, food noise, eye issues and on and on have me fed up. But the exhaustion is worse than my normal RA fatigue.

Does anyone have any experience or tips for this?

I'm in Canada, so I don't have unfettered access to my rheumatologist or rheumatology supports. Hopefully this great community has some little notes that can help me get through this.

I'm currently on another short term Pred taper. Rheum says if these frequent flares keep happening (this is my 2nd or so in 2 months) that we will have to discuss other possible treatments. I'm assuming meaning med adjustments and possible infusion? What's everyone's experiences with this when coming to a crossroads?

For the last year, I've been getting a single, random hive on my body. Sometimes two, but that's less common. Sometimes I'll have them in more than one place, but never more than three places at once. They look like insect bites, but I get them year-round (and I live in Minnesota so we don't have biting insects for like half the year). They also behave differently from insect bites, because I swell up like crazy when I get bitten by gnats or mosquitos. These look like a regular reaction to a mosquito bite: raised welt, very itchy. Sometimes they disappear in hours, sometimes a day or two. I just had it happen twice today, and now that I know I have RA, I wonder if this is related. But all I can find online (and searching here) is talk about lots of hives at once.

Anyone else experience this specific thing?

PS: I'm not worried about it being the serious HCQ side effect my doctor warned me about as I've only been on that for five days; plus these are the same way they've been for a year.

Hi everyone, I'm a 55 year old female about a year and a half into my diagnosis (seropositive). For a bunch of reasons I was very lucky to get on a biologic pretty early on (I can't take methotrexate). I've tried and failed Amjevita and Inflectra; I've now switched to Orencia (first infusion yesterday). I don't know what it's like not to essentially be in a flare since my diagnosis, and I've been taking prednisone on and off over the past year and a half. Up until about a week ago, my RA has always shown up in my hands/fingers/wrists. Last week, though, my right foot started to bother me. It's in a very specific place: kind of underneath my middle toe. It feels like there's an issue with the middle of the toe itself, and then right where the toe attaches to the foot, and a little bit in the ball of the foot in that area. It's become a little difficult to walk (I used to be a marathoner, now I still try to walk the dog a few miles a day) and I find myself compensating by leaning on the left or right side of the foot more. I'm assuming it's RA-related but curious if others have experienced this. I know that it sort of moves around -- for about four months my right wrist was a massive problem and as it eased up a little, it seemed to move to my left wrist. Just wondering what people have experienced with foot pain. Thank you!

I am hoping you all could help me brainstorm some possible RA-friendly team sports I could join once this flare is under control. I have been mostly sedentary for some years and now that I am diagnosed and on the road to increased mobility I am hoping to once again join a team sport because I really miss it. I used to play hockey and soccer and softball. Soccer is no longer doable for me because of the high impact and all the running (my RA attacks my knees the most) and hockey is just overall too much because of the risk of injury. Softball - maybe? I was thinking something like... cricket? I don't know much about it though. I basically need low-impact on the knees, something with minimal running, my hands aren't that much of an issue yet but I do need to avoid things that require high amounts of dexterity in the hands as I also have chronic de quervain's. I would appreciate any thoughts!

I pretty much tried everything and was in almost constant debilitating pain. I on a whim got a very good form of Magnesium Glycinate after particularly bad day and in 20 mins after taking it felt weightless and felt pretty much instant 90% reduction in pain. Slept like a baby and now woke up and my body feels so relaxed. Granted I need to take it longer to see long term results, but I am just so happy as my body wasn’t this relaxed ever I think.

Hi all! Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed I’ve been losing way more hair than what’s normal and I’m putting it down to the steroid even though I’ve been taking it since December. I’m just wondering what do you all recommend to help with this if you’ve also experienced hair loss? Any help is appreciated 🫶

In addition to joints anyone have pain in meat of muscle or tendons

well, another day another weird turn of events.

so, speed run- im off work for dysautonomia/flare/possible pots and now a new back injury. im out of sick time and for some reason my work contract doesnt have short term disability, so I have to apply for e.i sickness benefits. fair enough. 55% of pre tax pay for up to 26 weeks. BUT

after 26 weeks you can go on long term and get 70% and then my mortgage paid while im off (we have added insurance on the mortgage).

obviously id rather be fine. but man, if theres an option other than killing myself at work just to drag through days off to go back again..damn. id rather ve fatigued/sore/random heart rate issues at home than doing all things at a time. imagine- yeah, still pain, but pain at home, where i dont have to act like im fine or smile through ppls bullshit advice- while not stressing about money!

that said, in all seriousness, im sorry if youre suffering and needing to be off permanently or long term. this illness is a bitch.