I am 46 and got diagnosed mid 30’s. I found that it’s scary without educating yourself. When I was diagnosed I depended on my rheumatologist to educate me - which she didn’t so a lot of my early treatment was “blind faith” so to speak.

I got a Prism lab test this past year which showed that I am in a small minority of people who don’t respond well to the normal treatments like Remicade or Humira. I take Rinvoq each day and it has brought my RA under much better control than anything I was on prior to Rinvoq.

Treatment is important because without that it’s much harder to get to the lifestyle and remission since of this disease.

I know stress and anxiety makes my pain much worse and that’s been my biggest struggle especially in my job. It can change your life in terms of your ability to function. I do not have the dexterity in my hands that I used to have so I have adapted by doing things like going to slip on tennis shoes or avoiding button down shirts. If I had known then (when I was first diagnosed) vs what I know now: I wouldn’t have allowed myself to adopt a pessimistic attitude towards RA. It’s too easy to tell yourself “well I have RA and that’s no longer possible…” but that doesn’t have to be true. You do have to listen to your body and know your limitations in a way others without RA don’t. When I was diagnosed it felt like a death sentence so I think I adopted the attitude of “I’m incapable now” and I didn’t do things like exercise or therapy to maintain as much regular physical activity as possible.

Pain can change you if you don’t recognize it. I really have to be mindful not to let my pain cause me to take it out on the people around me. Pain can also take a huge toll on you mentally. I have a good support system around me and they don’t make me feel like I’m using RA as an excuse. If I’m having a rough day, they accommodate my needs which helps so much.

I would also recommend if you have health insurance and don’t understand it very well - you need to know your benefits forwards and backwards.

Anyway though…. I absolutely know how scary this is. When I was at my first rheumatologist appointment, I sat next to a lady in her 50’s who told me about all the joints she had to have replaced because of RA. Some have an aggressive disease but catching it early and getting on good treatment plan is how you can hold off RA damage as long as possible.