About me: I'm six weeks away from turning 39. I'm married with no human children and one dog--who serves as my surrogate child. I read voraciously, write when I'm able and (used to) enjoy knitting, crochet, light scrapbooking and other crafty things that are now mostly out of my reach. I'm a devout Christian and a devout Libertarian. That pretty much means that whatever you believe is not any problem with me. I'm a live-and-let-live kinda gal.

About my Furry Little Problem: I've had bad menstrual periods my whole life and went through an infertility workup in my early 20s. The doctor suspected endometriosis but put off the surgery. By my late 20s I was suffering 2 weeks a month with crippling abdominal pain and had passed over 30 kidney stones. The OBGYN finally convinced me to have the diagnostic laparoscopy in 2003. He was able to confirm pretty serious endometriosis. And my life has never been the same. By six months after the surgery I was so tired I was working 10 hours a day and sleeping 12 hours a day and was still tired. I started getting tingling in my extremities and the rate of kidney stones increased. I eventually had to quit my job and spent 3 years shuttling around between the OBGYN, the Urologist and the PCP. Each of them seemed to think the problem was "the other guy's specialty" and I got no help. By then the pain was everywhere and constant and I was living on about 40 OTC Advil a day with only a brief respite.

Then 2 years ago I talked to a woman who said I sounded like I had Lupus. I also switched PCPs, as the original one seemed to think that all my problems were because I was fat. (I know a LOT of fat people who live happy and productive lives and don't need a wheelchair to make it through the grocery store. So I knew that wasn't it.)

The new PCP said it didn't sound like Lupus but definitely sounded autoimmune. She first suspected Crohn's because of the kidney stones and had me seen by a Gastroenterologist. The scopes and scans for Crohn's came back negative so I was packed off to the Rheumatologist who did his own battery and narrowed it down to "Inflammatory Arthritis" because I was negative for the RA Gene but some of my other tests backed up autoimmune inflammatory disease. He started me on plaquenil which helped to a degree and also in his mind confirmed his diagnosis. He then has moved me up to Methotrexate, which I've been on escalting doses of since August of 2008.

I should also mention that I am seronegative but do have visible joint damage in several places.

Whew. That's a lot of information. Sorry.