Hi Mary, in my personal case, my symptoms at the beginning were swelling of the joints in my fingers, wrists, elbows and knees. During the swelling its difficult to walk, use the hands/fingers to full capacity, difficult to sit down and stand up without assistance.

Hope this helps some. Best of luck.
Crystal

Hi Mary, in my personal case, my symptoms were swelling of the joints in my fingers, wrists, elbows, and knees. Also had pain in my feet at times, and my hips. It was difficult to sit down, and stand up without assistance and at its worst, it was also difficult to walk.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.
Crystal

Dear Mary-Suggest some internet research on your part. That's how I learned a lot when I got the RA diagnosis in March this year. Sadly it seems, especially after reading folks comments, questions, and experiences, so many people are NOT getting adequate information from their doctors. It is imperative each of us take charge of our health decisions, not allowing a doctor to dictate the course of our disease, virtually our life. The way to do that is through educating ourselves as much as we can. I am shocked at your statement about RA sufferer's bodies ceasing the production of insulin. That's the first I have heard of such a correlation. I hope you are not experiencing that! If so, I hope you will get in to see doctor for evaluation. Good luck with your health. RA is bad enough, let alone having a diabetes problem too!!

my husband has RA-diagnosed about 6 years ago-he is also a type 1 diabetic...so there may be a correlation, though for him, the idabetes came first-at about 9 years old. Having nearly died last year, due to cerebral hystoplasmosis which resulted in menengitus and enchephalitus, all of which were traced back to Humera, my husband can no longer take immunosupressent drugs. Right now he is taking 3 to 4 mlgs. of prednisone daily (it effects his diabetes negativiely so he can only take a very low dose) Dont know if this helps you any. Sherry