Rheumatoid Arthritis

Hello everyone, my name is Sylvia. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome and back problems because of Arthritis. I already had a surgery on my back. I gave up drinking 17 years ago due to poor health. It’s the best thing I ever did for my sanity.

I was 15 years old and just started practicing Volleyball for high school, twice a day in the summer and every morning my feet hurt a little more. I thought I was just out of shape since it was summer, and we were doing a lot of running and conditioning in practice.

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I have both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, as well as Ulcerative Colitis and Asthma. Despite all of that at 63 I have a wonderfully full and busy life, But I do everything in pain.

In February of 2016, I underwent a surgery to remove a non-cancerous tumor growing in my abdomen. During the surgery, my large intestine was accidentally perforated, which resulted in 2 days of bacteria spilling out into my abdominal cavity. This is the event that my doctor believes triggered my Rheumatoid arthritis.

I had just turned 31; a year I’ll never forget. I was diagnosed with Lyme disease then two months later, my 27-year-old cousin was killed in a car accident from a distracted driver. A month later, I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis. I was in so much pain.

“How I long for them to empathize, not sympathize. And to simply ask me how I am doing now and then, and then really listen when I try to explain the struggle I have with Rheumatoid Arthritis (and NOT say, 'Oh, I feel that way too sometimes.')"

Keep your support team. We struggle each day to try to live as much as we can. To endure what pain we have going on that day. How tired we are. We lift each other up. And we pray for a better day. Yes, I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. But it does not have me.