"Early to mid January of this year I started having a lot of extra joint pain," said 65-year-old Allen Strickland, who told us rheumatoid arthritis practically stopped his life in its tracks.
"It was very difficult walking," he said. "Very difficult using my hands for much of anything. I could use a mouse on the computer but it was very difficult to type. Hard to get dressed undressed. You name it."
Some of the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis include tingling and numbness in your hands and feet., discoloration of the fingertips from inflamed blood vessels, bone fractures caused by a loss of bone, easy bruising thanks to a low blood platelet count, and breathing issues, because the disease is a type of inflammation.
"It can attack the lungs or attack the heart, so patients with rheumatoid arthritis have a higher risk of heart disease," said Dr. Hilda Draegar, a rheumatologist with University Health System. "Rheumatoid arthritis is sort of an allergy, and so your body begins to put all this inflammation against its own joints. So that inflammation we want to quiet down."
To manage his rheumatoid arthritis, Strickland takes a medication called methotrexate, a pill once a week.
He also takes Humira, which is a shot he injects himself once every two weeks. But he says it is well worth the needle. "Get seen, because rheumatoid arthritis is one of those things that, the longer you go without treating it, the more permanent damage you get and it does not get well," Strickland said.
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