Services for people with rheumatoid arthritis

 

Symptoms

 

 

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We have provided a text transcript below:

 

Transcript

 

SPEAKER 1:

I was 18 when I first started experiencing symptoms. The very first symptoms I felt was pain in the balls of my feet, especially in the mornings .. only really in the mornings because by mid-morning (initially) it had gone, so it was just pain in the bottom of my feet in the morning, that was making me limp on my way into work. What happened next was that things started to progress; it wasn’t just the pain in my feet that I was feeling but also pain in my ankles, knees, hands, wrists and I was also starting to feel more unwell in myself. I was living in the nurses’ homes at the time (independently) but I had to move back in my with my parents because I wasn’t coping with living independently and they were becoming aware that I was not as well as I had been; the fatigue was becoming worse, I felt generally unwell in myself - so there were a few trips backwards and forwards to the GP, with increasing symptoms.

 

SPEAKER 2:

I was experiencing severe pain in both my knees (in particular the right knee), rather like a needle of some sort, a very sharp pain, for a period of, I’d say, a year or so, before I went to my GP. And I’ve always been playing cricket throughout my life, and I always used to think that it was just another sports injury. I’d delayed and delayed and not gone to the GP for that reason but eventually it was coming more often and I couldn't run at all and at that point I went to my GP.

 

SPEAKER 3:

When I first started to experience some symptoms I had, I thought, a torn muscle in my shoulder and that’s why I first went to my GP. When I was at the physio I saw a chart on the wall that plotted all the different things that you may have wrong with you if you had RA and to my horror, when I looked at it, I realised I had quite a few of the problems that were on the poster.

 

SPEAKER 4:

I was 16 years old when I first experiencing symptoms; I had awful gland problems (a bit like glandular fever) when I was sitting my mock GCSEs and I went to the doctor and they said ‘it’s probably glandular fever’ and then I sort of started getting an ache in one finger and I thought it was from typing or doing lots of writing for my exams and then it started in my shoulders; they were very stiff and at night I was in a lot of pain.

 

SPEAKER 5:

The main reason I sought help was actually after quite a length of time, I was just in so much pain, I couldn't work, I didn't really have a social life, things were pretty miserable, which is what eventually drove me to go and see my GP. The other symptoms I had were; I had swelling in my hands, one of my knees had swollen up quite badly and I also had really stiff feet in the mornings and my hands started to tighten up, I couldn't open my fists, that kind of thing – it was a gradual process really and over time it just got worse; it was something that I thought would just disappear.

 

 

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