Caroline Wozniacki tells her story, from being the number one world tennis champion to facing a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis.
I wanted to write this blog to tell you all a little bit about my rheumatoid arthritis journey so far. I was diagnosed in 2018 (which was a total shock to me), and I’ve learned so much about it and other chronic inflammatory diseases, such as axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis and psoriasis, since then.Continue readingTennis Star Caroline Wozniacki Talks About Her RA→
My name is Jessica ThomasandI was diagnosed in 2018 withankylosing spondylitis (AS)andrheumatoid arthritis (RA).I tested positive forCOVID-19in August 2020, as did the rest of my immediate family, including my 16-year-old daughter, who haspsoriatic arthritis. I believe it is very important to share my story with others who haverheumatic diseasesand take immunosuppressant medications.
Aug.20, 2020,turned out to be animportant day. Ihadn’tfeltgreat when I wentto bed the night before, and I woke up that Thursday morningwith aheadachethatstretched from my eyebrows to the middle of my back. It felt like a knife was under my right shoulder blade twisting into my lung. I assumed it was a horrible arthritis flare.COVID我都没想过19岁。I had no feverorcough.
Jessica Thomas, RA and AS patient who has long-haul COVID-19
I called in sick to work and was in bed all day. I could barely lift my head off the pillow,and I was exhausted.Noneof the pain medications Inormally use for my arthritiscould break the clenching pain.I tookTylenol, ibuprofen,gabapentinand diclofenac. (Additionally, I receive abiologicinfusion every eight weeks.My daughter is also on a biologic medication.)
Whenmy familylooksback,weeachsee this week differently. My daughter, GabbyLepore,remembers her allergies bothering her. None of us had much of an appetite.We were tired, but we are a busy familyso this wasn’t unusual.
As someone with an autoimmune disease, I am very in tune with the fact thatonedayImightfeelterrible,butthe next day I am fine. I was really expecting this horrible migraine togo awayandthatI would be back on my feet the nextday.
OnFriday,Aug.21,Gabby and my 12-year-old son, AnthonyLepore,were at their dad’s house.Gabbycalled me to sayAnthonywas not feeling well and had a low–grade fever.Heremembers feeling suddenly very hot and just wanting to sleep, buthe has very little recollection of that weekend.Gabbycontinued to check his temperature,which was up to 104thatafternoon.
My ex-husband left work and took the kids to the Illinois Department of Public Health free testing center. I wasn’t feeling great, but I was better than the day before,so I figured we were getting seasonal allergies or colds. At this point, my daughter and her father were largely asymptomatic.
I felt much better over the weekend—tired, but nothing out of the ordinary for someone with autoimmune diseases. On Monday, my ex-husband called to inform我听说他们的检测结果都呈阳性。我意识到我需要尽快做检查。I went to four locations in my town and in Chicago—about 30 minutes away —beforeI finally found a drug store that would give me a test.
这是星期一。Ididnot receive my results until Friday morning. I quarantinedall week, but by the time the results came, I was very sick.
My son, who had areally highfeverandcough, bounced back in about a week. My husband and ex-husband had just mild, allergy-like symptoms. And my daughter feltrun-down, but itwasn’tuntil about three weeks later, when she went back to playing ice hockey, that she had a really bad bout of asthma symptoms.Gabbywoke up one night struggling to breathe andlanded in the emergency room.She ultimately had to increase her asthma medication, but she recoveredwithin a few weeks.
For me, the darkest days were daysseventhrough 21. I never had a fever or cough, but I am convinced I had every other possible symptom. My head was in so much pain and it radiated around my skull and down my neck and back. Lifting my head would make me so dizzy that I vomited onafewoccasions.IalsosufferedotherhorribleGIissuesthatkeptmeupatnight and lying in the bathroom during the day. I passed out twice from pain.
On two different occasions I had a gallbladder attack.I hadhadakidneystone in 2019andthatareasuddenly ached again. My throat wassoreand my head was tender to the touch and burned inside. My muscles ached, my jointshurtand I had horrible chills and night sweats. Around dayseven,I lost my taste and smell. I often felt like a knife was stabbing under my right shoulder blade. I have since learned that could have been lung–related, but thankfullyI had ordered a pulse-oximeter to monitormy oxygen levels, and theyremained normal.
这是一段非常艰难的时期，因为我们都生病了。Ihad totake aboutsixdaysoffofwork andreturned by working half days because anything beyond that was unmanageable.My visionwas impacted. Iwasexhausted. When one symptomeasedup, another one came along and knockedme off my feet.Itooka course ofprednisone atone point that had absolutely no effect.
My symptoms were heavily neurological.At six weeks, I was still having daily headaches that were really debilitating. I couldn’t sleep, had a lot of brain fog and still no sense of taste or smell.My doctor gave meTopamax, which initially helped the headaches but then they came back with a vengeance.Ialsohad phantom smells—it constantly smelled like a burning building, which made it hard to breathe.
My doctors were out of suggestions, so I finally went to the emergency room. Interestingly, nothing I told them seemed unusual. There aren’t any standard treatments for COVID-19, but the ER doctorprescribed treatments that haveworked for some other patients, she said.
They put tubes up my nostrils and dripped lidocaine tonumbthe nervesand easethe headaches.The doctor took me off theTopamaxand gave me aToradolinjection, and she also got me an appointment the next week with a neurologist, who put me on a different medication.(All the while, my daughter and Icontinued our medications for arthritis, which remainedundercontrol.)
Onehard part of catching a “novel virus” is that everything a doctor does是实验。COVID-19 impacts everyone differently, so treatments vary greatly from patient to patient.An advantage of having a chronic illness is that it has given me experience advocating for myself and my family, which has helped in getting treatment for COVID-19 symptoms.But it’s not like you can call your doctor and get a medicine for it. The therapeutics we hear about in the news are saving lives of the sickest people in hospitals.Until I got help in the emergency room,I mostly relied on ibuprofen and other over-the-counter meds.
It’s been morethan three monthssince I tested positive andI still havelimitedtasteandsmell.The neurologist ordered an MRI that showed findings consistent with patients with chronic migraines—a new chronic illness for me. Thankfully, after what feels like a long road, the headaches and phantom smells have diminished, and I slowly feel as though I am returning to myself again.
Visit ourCare & Connect pagesto learn howtobestprotect yourself and what to doif you suspect you have COVID-19. Ifyou’vetested positive for COVID-19, share your experiences with others in ourLive Yes Community.
You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: One of the best things you can do for arthritis is to lose excess weight. Research shows that while diet and exercise combined are most effective for dropping pounds, dieting alone helps more than exercise alone. No one’s saying it’s easy, but evidence shows it pays off. Here’s how it can help.Continue readingHow Shedding Pounds Eases Arthritis Symptoms→
A diagnosis ofinflammatory arthritis会让你想知道你会面临什么:你会面对你的疾病，崎岖不平的道路，还是它会对最低限度的治疗有良好的反应?虽然没有水晶球，但对不同形式的炎症性关节炎的研究正在确定预测疾病严重程度的可能性的因素。
Knowing these factors enables your doctor to target treatment, says David Pisetsky, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and immunology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. “With evidence of a worse prognosis, most rheumatologists will monitor patients more closely, try to get disease control more rapidly and adjust medications to achieve a [disease] activity score as low as possible,” he says. Plus, steps to taper treatment in those who achieve remission “would be more cautious and gradual,” he adds.
Rheumatic diseases don’t just affect the joints; they can attack many different body parts, including the eyes. Save your vision by bringing any of the following symptoms to your doctor’s attention.
Dryness
Eyes that burn, itch or feel gritty could point toSjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune attack on the body’s moisture- producing glands. About half of people living with Sjögren’s also have another autoimmune disease, such asrheumatoid arthritis (RA)orlupus.
When Kathleen Stoddart was diagnosed withrheumatoid arthritis (RA)two years ago, she knew there would be some things she couldn’t control. But, when she realized some things were within her control, she immediately got to work.
“When I was diagnosed with RA, one thing the doctor mentioned was smoking,” recalls Kathleen. “I had been a smoker for a long time. “I kept thinking that if there was any behavior I had that contributed to making my RA worse, I would do anything to change it. Within a month of my diagnosis, I quit smoking completely.”
You’ve probably heard of omega-3 fatty acids, especially if you have an inflammatory type of arthritis. They help reduce inflammation throughout the body, and some studies have shown benefits for heart health, brain function and diabetes.
There are two major types of omega-3 fatty acids in our diets. One type is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and the other type is eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). The body partially converts ALA to EPA and DHA.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), fish oil (EPA and DHA) is the most commonly used dietary supplement in the United States. A study published in theAnnals of Rheumatic Diseasein 2013, found that when a high-dose fish oil supplement is added to so-called triple therapy forrheumatoid arthritis(methotrexate, sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine), patients achieved better outcomes: they were far less likely to “fail” treatment and twice as likely to reach remission than those who did not take a supplement.
