Just want to share my experiences of Rheumatoid Arthritis and living in Adelaide South Australia.
Adelaide has the nickname of RAdelaide already, I thought I would just repurpose it.
Little bit of Background:
I have had some health issues since returning from a holiday to Egypt and Jordan in late 2009.
Was spiking fevers and had fatigue for weeks at a time. I would walk home from work and lay on the floor for an hour under the airconditioner before I was able to get enough energy to move again. Visits to the GP would show my liver function tests failing. Everything would clear up for a several weeks/months and then the cycle would start again. Tested for all the usual stuff that you might pick up in Egypt... swimming in the Nile and running around in fields barefoot apparently isn't the safest thing for your health!
This cycle would repeat on and off for most of 2010.
In the beginning of 2011 had a really bad episode and went off to see my GP again. Was referred to see a Gastrointestinal specialist who was also trained in infectious diseases medicine but nothing came of that, everything came back negative.
By this time I had started doing my own research and found that a lot of my symptoms were similar to those with Lyme Disease - I did have a bite on my forearm when I was in Egypt and there is still a lump there today. Thought maybe it was a tick bite instead of a mosquito bite or something else. My GP ran some of the Lyme disease tests, basically to ease my concerns as he wan't convinced it was possible for me to contract it. (It is possible to contract it in Egypt from tick bites)
Several months later and I was at my GP's again. No Lyme disease and it was getting a little frustrating as this had been going on for a long time and we were not getting any closer to finding out what the cause was.
Just mentioned casually that I had a sore knee as I tried to run across a set of lights when the light started flashing but had to start walking as my knee was really painful. I though this was just normal wear and tear from playing indoor soccer in the past. Think this tweaked something as my GP sent off some tests for Arthritis.
