I've just been diagnosed with arthritus....

[ConkersDontScareSpiders]

Does anyone else have any experience of this? What started as general aches and pains became intolerable faulty quickly.Ive been put on anti inflammatory drugs for three months and then advised that I will need injections in my wrists as a minimum.currently signed off work as ankles too sort to allow driving and left wrist so weak that I can't lift anything with it. I'm 36 and feel like an old old lady....is there anything I can do lifestyle wise to alleviate symptoms does anyone know?

Do you mean arthritis OP? Which type have you been diagnosed with? There are hundreds, if not thousands of us on here who have arthritis. Things like osteoarthritis are pretty normal but this doesn't sound like OA.
Lots of types of arthritis are auto immune diseases where the body attacks itself. There are anti inflammatory diets which respond well to some types of athritis.
There are associations and charities providing support and information for every type of arthritis. Those would be a good place to start for getting information.

had it for 40 years. best advice keep moving until your body needs a rest. Do not become dependent on pain killers as you will be constantly upping the dosage.

Yes, sorry-typo.Rheumatoid? It has come in quite fast-first aches and pains in the autumn to being so painful I can't do certain things now.The GP said it goes like that for about 1 in 6 people so just wondered if anyone else had experienced that?
Had bloods done yesterday to check for other things, B12 defficiency, full blood screen, glandular fever, vitamin D etc and have been put in methatraxate as an antinflammatory. Got some wrist and ankle supports yesterday which do seem to have helped a little bit.
So you think gentle exercise rather than total rest then?
I've only been signed off work for a day so far and am already very bored and frustrated as I've loads of things I could be getting on with if only my wrists weren't so floppy!!

I have osteo and rheumatoid. When first diagnosed the wisdom was do not walk more than 1k a day. I tried to do so but found that the pain was worse unless i kept moving. If i overdid it i did take medi Also have and use supports when necessary-knee and ankle and have used walking sticks at times. I know i had total bed rest at one point when younger ,so must have been more serious then. Yes to vit and mineral supplements.Def follow what your dr has told you ,op.

Thanks armamai.I will see if the bloods come back with anything further and try and rest up a bit and see if it helps whilst the medication kicks in.

Hoping the rest helps. I was tested for arthritis in my 20s. It turned out (following the bloods) not to have been that at all but related to glandular fever.
I took supplements including Devils claw. BUT this was years ago and I have no idea what supplements are a good idea or might interfere with your other meds.
Good luck. Xx

One of my bloods was glandular fever so that's interesting.I didn't knew you could have glandular fever without kind of being confined to bed kind of thing.will see what the results turn up.i feel super tired but that might be because I've stopped work and exercise so the tiredness is more in the mind than the boys so to speak.resting seems to be helping.thanks all.

I may be talking utter rubbish as it was over 20 years ago and I was off my face on pain pills!
If I recall correctly the theory was i had glandular fever but didn't realise and the virus attacked the joints.

Did your GP refer you to rheumatology? They're usually pretty good at lifestyle advice so I'm surprised they haven't helped you!

Have you seen a rheumatologist? If not, you really need to push your GP for a referral as soon as possible and if you have, I would get back in touch and ask about a steroid jab or tablets to give you some short-term relief.

Methotrexate is not an anti-inflammatory, it's a Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drug (DMARD) which is intended to suppress your immune system to reduce inflammation and pain - it's fairly hardcore so I can't imagine they would have given it to you if they weren't pretty sure you have RA. It works well for me, but it took a good few weeks to have an effect, so I was given a steroid injection to tide me over.

Exercise helps me a lot, not least because I'm carrying around less weight on my joints, but I think you need to get your symptoms under control first.

Oh crumbs-no, wasn't even mentioned.hopefully get the results of blood tests back today so will ask about it then.GP is not the most pro active so he will need a nudge I would think.

Im 38 and I got diagnosed with RA in July last year by a Rheumatologist. I also have Pernicious Aneamia as well which is treated by injections every 3 months to up by B12 levels.

My rheumatologist wanted to put me on Methotrexate and Hydroxychloroquine initially but we decided to start off slowly and then progress to Methotrexate if I needed it. I started taking Hydroxychloroquine in July and they seem to have done the trick so far and with no side effects.

I went from not being able to walk without pain to being back to virtually doing what I used to do before.