vaginapagina | HBC and autoimmune diseases.

Hello Pagers. (Before we begin; humor is one of my coping mechanisms. I mean no disrespect to anyone else dealing with infertility, the aftermath of miscarriage, etc. with my somewhat casual and irreverent tone. It's just that, at this point, if what I fear is actually reality, I need all the humor I can get.)

So, in the course of the purgatory that has been dealing with my Pandora's Box, I've been changed to Errin (Micronor) from Nuvaring after a miscarriage and then a failed Mirena insertion. (Scary to realize I can sum up the last three years of nightmares with one sentence.) The past two months are the only ones since the miscarriage when I haven't bled in excess of an ounce a day for 4 days every two weeks. IN THEORY (because, with me, there's no telling!) my hormones seem to be leveling out.

But BEFORE all that (two winters ago), I randomly noticed I had a few days where I couldn't squeeze my fists tight enough to open plastic storage containers and just generally lost my grip on things easily. It passed, so I didn't think much of it; I had too much going on working 2 jobs and finishing school. Fast forward to this past summer during the miscarriage fiasco, again, I had a few days of the same pain and some stiffness in the first joints of my hands, but everything else was making me so miserable I didn't really pay attention to it.

And finally a week ago, I noticed it again, radiating up to my elbows, coupled with the same pain in my feet up to my ankles, a low-grade fever, and this time the intensity of it was... I can only sum it up with "it's been interesting" without resorting to profanity.

So, considering my age (32), the stress I've been under with 3 jobs and the search for an upgrade to one of them, my utterly *abysmal* eating habits through the past 6 months, and the 3 generation family history of rheumatoid arthritis, I'm worried.

My question is, now that my hormones are getting leveled out, if this turns out to be RA, what am I looking at in terms of treatment?

Could the HBC be contributing to RA flares, if that's what these are? Am I going to have to try to find *another* form of birth control to keep this pain at bay?

Or, is a diagnosis of RA one more tool in my arsenal in the fight to get myself spayed?

I have an appointment Tuesday afternoon with a GP, and I'm going in prepared to dig in about blood tests including the anti-CCP test that finally diagnosed my father, as well as x-rays and the standard RA panel, mainly because I need to get them done while I still have both symptoms (pain's been about a 4-6 today, no fever, limbs are cold, but I can finally make a fist) and health insurance (which I lose July 1st, hence the job upgrade plans).

Any RA & HBC experienced Pagers with thoughts? Thanks in advance. :)