I was diagnosed with RA about 4 years ago. When I was 22 yrs old. I've had joint problems all my life and my current rheumy and I believe that I had RA as a child but that nobody realized it. During my high school I spent at least 3 days a week with a physiotherapist for bi-lateral knee and ankle pain. When I got diagnosed a had my first really had flare, my hands became so inflamed that they had to cut off my wedding ring. At that point I started on prednisone mtx pills, plaquinel and folic acid. along with an anti-depressant as I wasn't coping well. I had to stop working as a nurse because i was in too much pain and too many side effects. It took about 8 months to get back on my feet again and after that i couldn't work full time anymore, but i had to work i was going crazy at home. After about a year a a half on the mtx my hair started to fall out a lot i had a huge bald spot on the back of my head and i was still having terrible side effects from the mtx. So i switched to Arava. I liked it and ti worked well for me. I'd still have flares, but they were much less intense and my hair started to grow back. During that time my husband walked out on me because he couldn't handle my being sick. I'm better off without him now! I thought at that point I had got the magic balance between meds and the RA until last winter when I got pneumonia. It was terrible, 4 antibiotics, a dislocated rib, a lot of pain and three months later the rheumy and i decided I had to come off the arava. My body wasn't able to beat the pneumonia while i was taking it. So I did, and the pneumonia got better. Things were going great until I started to flare badly again. This time i didn't have many options, I had no drug plan and had no husband to support me so I decided to go back on the mtx but injections this time. So far so good, the side effects are less than with the pills. And I've gotten a great employer who is allowing me to work 4 days a week instead of five and have a full benefits package.