I am a 35-year-old Christian man who is happily married with three children (13B, 7G & 3B) and living in Northern Colorado.

While I am newly diagnosed with RA I have been struggling with it since late April of 2008. I received several diagnoses; the first was gout, then post-streptococcal-reactive-arthritis and finally were down to plain (pain) old RA.

I tried MTX, but my first dose aggravated my asthma. I switched to Arava (leflunomide) (which is a daily pill) and have been able to tolerate that better, but it still has not gotten me below 8mg of methyl-predispose. I have just started Humira (10/5/08- first injection) and am very hopeful this will get the RA under control.

I have had an interesting career: I started out in the Technical Fields doing testing and measurement at the technician level. My first real jobs were at Texaco Research, IBM Manufacturing Engineering and several smaller companies in NY and CO. Five years ago we relocated to Arizona and I began to minister at inner-city church in the greater Phoenix area. 2 years ago we moved back to our beloved Colorado and started a small business, which died an ugly death. I returned to the workforce, this time as a machinist, but after six months I could not continue in such a physically demanding position due to the onset of RA. I have been home since April of 2008.