I am in my early twenties and am already facing tendonitis, with a high chance of developing arthritis- so I think this is just me emotionally preparing myself.

How has your arthritis changed how you prepare yourself for the day? Are people not doing makeup, nails, avoiding shaving? What should I be ready to be ready to say goodbye to?

24f got diagnosed with HLA-B27 positive spondyloarthritis. Doctor was sort of dismissive and did not explain much. I was put on sulfasalazine and some kind of pain medication which seems to work for the most part. This is day 4.

The appointment was very brief and I am not sure what kind of spondyloarthritis he mentioned, since it’s not written on my record yet. Had a MRI of SI joint before the diagnosis and they found mild levoscolliosis of lumbar area or something. No mention of significant edema or anything else. I haven’t been scanned anywhere else yet.

So the thing is, what kind of arthritis is this exactly? My rheumatoid factor is negative. Same with every other panel. Only HLA-B27 and inflammation markers are super positive.

No visible swelling. But really bad stiffness and pain in most joints (knees, elbows, ankles, lower back, neck, back of shoulder, wrists). A looot of crepitus too. Eye dryness that has been there for months. GI issues. My back is kinda stiff. Same with my fingers and knees. It feels like there’s hard elastic bands holding my joints. I can feel some kind of resistance when I try to stretch my legs and hands. The stiffness SUCKS and my joints get achey if I stay still for more than 15 minutes.

My energy has disappeared entirely ever since this flared up and I am finding it difficult to retain information too. No energy even with pain and the arthritis meds. The pain meds have helped a LOT (way better than ibuprofen) but the pain and stiffness still comes up and my energy is absolutely dead. I mentioned this to the doctor but he didn’t seem to believe me.

I am struggling to do anything. I feel totally exhausted after 2 hours of studying (even with breaks in between).

I haven’t been to a rheumatologist yet. I asked my current doctor if there was anything that could improve my symptoms quicker in short term (I have finals coming up and I am not doing well) and he dismissed me. I don’t feel great about anything and all this has taken a massive toll on my academic performance. I looked up sulfasalazine and it says that it takes 4 months for it to help. In that case, I am rather cooked because I feel horrible and can’t even get through my basic tasks these days. I am trying to consult a rheum soon to see if they have any options for short term symptom management.

I had been struggling with progressing joint issues for months (I did not notice the gradual increase) until last month when things just blew up all over the place suddenly. I couldn’t get out of bed for a couple of weeks and even double ibuprofen seemed to do nothing. Found out about the spondyloarthritis after that.

I did do some reading but I am really confused because my symptoms don’t fit anywhere properly. I don’t have spinal damage in the sacroiliac area but my fucking back hurts way more than the normal amount. My joints aren’t swollen but they hurt terribly too, especially my knees, wrists and ankles. My joints can be HEARD (if I move my neck or wrist I can sort of hear it), although I also have hypermobility so maybe that’s why.

What kind of spondyloarthritis is this? I am pretty upset because my doctor sort of dismissed me throughout the appointment and I wasn’t able to tell him about some other symptoms I had. I was told that I needed to do an endoscopy and colonoscopy later and I am not looking forward to that either.

I also want to know: what is my life going to be like from now? I liked skateboarding, climbing, roller coasters and all that. I don’t know if that’s possible anymore.

Any advice is welcome!

As the title says - this is a question for people who suffer from arthritis, and know anything regarding this?

I’m from wales, UK. My grandmother suffers severely with arthritis in her ankles, knees, fingers and wrists from decades worth of hard labour working.

A sudden thought came to mind last night while I was thinking of ways that could potentially help. I know already that Botox is used in many ways to relieve muscle spasms and helps with inflammatory muscles - which begged the question, if Botox was injected close to or in the hand muscles or tissue near the knees, could it give some form of relief for those who suffer from arthritis?

And, i was correct. There are multiple studies showing that Botox genuinely helps with the pain, and pain relief can last near a year. They do it in America - but of course it’s not FDA approved, but you can still get it. and neither is it an approved procedure here in the UK, and you cannot get it here.

My question is - if the studies show patients are no longer in pain, why is this not a standard procedure? Why has this never been something people thought about?

I understand that it doesn’t ‘fix’ the problem, but if people aren’t in pain anymore - surely that has to be better than the alternative…

Has anybody had this procedure done? Has anyone looked into it?

So I went to a Rheumatologist with pain in my MCP joint in my left thumb. It just started out of nowhere. She got a steroid shot for me. 2 months, pain free. Now the pain is back and it's worse than before. I read that you can't get many steroid shots as it destroys cartilage over time or something. So I don't know what I'm supposed to do now. I'm seeing the doctor again on Monday but in the mean time I just wondered if anyone else has been through this and knows what could help after trying that.

Had what I think was my first outburst of symptoms in the last month I believe. Knees, elbow, ankle, lower back- pain and stiffness had gradually increased over several months but was still bearable. Over those months, I also felt increased physical and mental fatigue. Energy dipped. I am 24.

Then it suddenly became too much and I started getting gut issues too. The joint issues got severe and I couldn’t get out of bed for a while. I started feeling increased brain fog and memory issues too. Had trouble recollecting what I had studied a day ago and my brain also felt slower. This happened alongside the general physical fatigue and lack of energy.

Went through some tests and was told that this is HLA-B27 positive axial or peripheral (?) spondyloarthritis(the doctor told it to my mother and mostly ignored me and the appointment was very brief).

I mentioned my recent memory issues and brain fog(I wasn’t forgetting anything major, it had just become difficult to retain detailed information while studying as compared to before). The doctor said that it was psychological and then proceeded to only talk to my mom again. I tried to say that the fatigue and brain fog was affecting my academic performance and asked if there was anything that could be done to bring it down quickly because I have an important exam in a month. He insisted that it was psychological.

I have ADHD and I have noticed that my meds became completely useless around this recent outburst of symptoms. I brought this up and the doctor said that it was psychological again.

Is it possible that this is entirely psychological? I am not experiencing lapses in memory at all. I am just struggling to retain information as compared to before. Normally, I can study a certain topic and remember details for months. Now, I am forgetting details I studied yesterday. I know that I am also feeling some amount of “This sucks and it’s going to impact my performance” for sure but I am quite confident in my cognitive abilities regardless of that and this brain fog does not feel like I “manifested” it.

I can still do great with my working memory(feels a little sluggish but perfectly doable) but I am struggling to retain information over time. For example, I can learn something new and do pretty well with that information on that day. Then, if I try to do questions from that topic the next day, I struggle to remember what I learned.

I don’t want anyone to validate me if this is purely psychological. I just want to know if this is actually something people experience when the autoimmune stuff comes up or if this is purely some self limiting fear that I have developed. Please be honest, I would appreciate it and it would genuinely help me understand how to deal with whatever problem this may be. I will talk about this with my psychiatrist soon too. I just want to know if anyone else has experienced this.

Hi all, I was diagnosed with patellofemoral arthritis at 23. I’m extremely active, but despite stopping running and anything else that is hard on them when I was diagnosed 4 years ago, they have gotten much worse and I know they will continue to get worse.

I’m trying to push off any invasive surgery as long as possible and have read some good things about PRP/Stem cell injections. Has anyone had any luck with them? If so, how did you find the right spot to get it done? It sounds like people do have success with it, but it can really depend on the clinic that you go to for the injections. I know it isn’t cheap, so I want to make sure I find a reputable spot if I do invest in it. Thanks in advance!

I'm regularly sharing updates on my experience with a full wrist fusion surgery. I have seronegative rheumatoid arthritis. Hopefully this helps someone who may be experiencing the same or considering this type of surgery.

I had a full wrist fusion (carpal tunnel release, ulnar resection and neurectomy) on October 6th. I'm 37 years old and was misdiagnosed for most of my adult life. My left wrist collapsed 2 years ago and getting the medical care I've needed was a very long wait.

Hi Team Thritis,

Been struggling with back and chest pain for a while. Finally got to the bottom of it. Effectively every T from 1-12 has thoracic costovertebral osteoarthritis. And all the facets have arthropathy.

Weirdly, I really can’t find all that much research on this type of Arthritis. Which makes me feel special in not a great way.

Was wondering if there are others out there and if they would be willing to share their experiences? Mine has been me losing my mind convinced that I’m having heart and lung issues.

Any direction to some research or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I'm 21 now , diagnosed very late because lack of attention and facilities

So my doctor has prescribed me a folitrax (mtx)10 mg for once a week

And folvite 5mg twice a week

For eg. Mtx - Sunday

Folvite - Friday, Saturday

Which should we start first ?

I'm anaemic person tho

PS- not able to contact doctor online because of his leave .

so i got an mri on my back in 2023 when i was asymptomatic, and they noticed early facet arthritis. flash to summer 2026 and im having really bad back pain and need another mri. this recent report says “no significant arthropathy.” has anyone experienced conflicting reports like that? should i ask for a second opinion from another radiologist?

I went to a rheumatologist few days ago for pain in my hands and he wrote down some tests and pelvis X-ray (i don’t know why) . Today saw him again with all reports he looked at the x ray and said i have very mild arthritis in my back which was confusing . I asked him what does this have to do with my hands and he didn’t say much said it was my hyper mobility. I have been asked to take an injection weekly 1ml corticosteroid and then do more tests after a month . I looked up the injection and even people with severe pain are not given it weekly . Its making me anxious. My family wants me to take all of them . I don’t understand the treatment plan its making me really anxious.

I’m 17 years old and ever since last December, I’ve had pain and discomfort in my arms and hands that my GP thinks is arthritis. He set me up with an appointment to see a rheumatologist in December, but I’m worried that it’s too far away from now and that my joints could be permanently damaged by then. Should I be worried about this?

24f. Started getting chronic mild joint pain for a few years but it wasn’t too bad until this year. I went from being okay to staying in bed for two weeks due to bad joint pain.

Knees, lower back, ankles, elbows started hurting a lot, especially after waking up. Sometimes I would get really bad, sharp flares of pain in some particular big joint like my hip or knee. These would last for a few days and I would have trouble moving. In the last few months, I have mostly limped around my house due to joint pain. I believed that it was due to less physical activity but it became unbearable after a while, to the point that I couldn’t get out of bed without taking double doses of pain meds.

My ANA and ANCA was negative when I was tested three years back. I do have family history of seronegative conditions however. ESR has generally stayed 20+ for most of my adult life. My pain has been especially bad lately and CRP came out to be 30. No infections or sickness. I went to a rheum but they did not take me seriously due to my age perhaps? Did not want to test for anything.

Anyways the joint pain kept getting worse by the day and I was having trouble doing basic tasks. I felt like a fraud because the pain was so bad but no one believed me.

Then my HLA-B27 pcr test came back positive. Inflammatory markers in blood are also high. I know that this doesn’t confirm anything but it’s a start and I think that I may be taken seriously FINALLY.

I still feel like an idiot though. What do I do now? How do I bring this up without sounding stupid? I am very nervous about this because I have been dismissed so many times. What is next? How do I go about this? What tests can I ask for to figure out the next steps? I don’t want to be dismissed again.

My pain is in my knees, elbows, neck, ankles (especially ankles). Lower back hurts bad if I stand straight for a while(present since childhood but worse now). Pain starts after waking up, dulls after a bit of movement, and then flares up again if I sit in the same place for too long. My joints crack loudly all day with simple movements. Frequent gi issues too. Joints are also hypermobile but they only started hurting very badly this year onwards. Also have mild genu valgum since childhood.

I still feel like I may be imagining all this because doctors don’t seem to take it seriously when I mention joint pain.

What do I do now? What could this be? I really need to know how to proceed.

I get joint pains if I eat meat or seafood. I've been managing this by significantly reduce meant/seafood intake. Limiting meat/seafood intake had been working fine for many years.

However, in January 2026 I started to get pain outside my right knee after going down a mountain almost non-stop for 4 hours. The pain lingered for months now. I can no longer go down hills or slopes without pain.

People online suggested that it's ITBS so stretches should help. I tried but it didn't fix it

Worse even I started to feel knee stiffness whenever I walked too longer. It started a couple of weeks after I started to walk 10000 steps a day. It continued even when I reduced my walking steps to 8000 or even 6000.

The pain continues even if I don't eat meat. It sucks.

Does anyone else have similar experiences?

I'm happy to report the below:

The issue is almost gone completely now. Yeh! :D I tried all the physiotherapy tips for 7 months. It helped a little bit but not much. In the end it got worse since my knees started to feel rusty any time I walked too long (up to 1000 steps) or went up or down stairs. Some suggested that magnesium supplement might help. So I started to take it but still the issue persisted.

One day I consulted Gemini about starting to feel dizzy before the end of my 18 hr fasting. Gemini suggested that I might be short of potassium since my kidneys have been releasing potassiums during the fasting. So I started to take a pinch of heart salt in my morning black coffee every day, as suggested by Gemini.

Immediately not only my diziness went away but also my knee discomfort started to improve. Apparently magnesium and potassium work together to strengthen leg muscles which are critical to support knees.

It's been a month now and my knees are totally fine again. I still get a tiny and short pain outside my right knee occassionaly but it's no longer bothering me that much. I can walk downstairs or down slope without pain most of the time, thanks to Gemini AI. It's my go to consultant for health issues now.

Help! This started happening about a week and a half ago. My right (&dominant) hand was swollen upon waking up. I have had pain at my joints and in between my index and middle finger. I have also had swelling throughout the whole hand. I haven’t been able to wear rings for this time due to it (including my smart ring). This is only occurring on my right hand. Swelling, pain (ache & sharp), redness at times. I have gotten compression gloves and have begun to wear one on this hand when the pain is worse.

I was just diagnosed with Small Fiber Neuropathy and Dysautonomia this year. I do also have arthritis. I was checked for RA and lupus a few years ago but those had come back negative. I’m not sure if that has changed.