u/KeliLeann12

Recently got back into seeing a new rheumatologist, she did bloodwork and at my follow up said she wants me to try hydroxychloroquine 200mg 2 times a day. She told me I can start with one a day for a week and then up it. I’m 22 and got diagnosed when I was 20 and have only tried sulfasalzine and had to stop cause I would overheat while on it.

I’m honestly just wondering how do you deal with anxiety when starting new medication? I have severe anxiety and ocd along with some other health issues and will be taking my first dose during my therapy session on Wednesday.

Ik the benefits outweigh the risks of trying it, and I can’t go unmedicated. I’m just terrified honestly of all the scary side effects and potential risks

I’m 22 and in late 2024 I was diagnosed with RA. I won’t go in to too much detail of my blood work since ik you’re mostly likely not doctors (and definitely not my doctor!😅) but I had high ANA a positive crp and two of my rheumatoid factors were positive. Some other things showed a potential for me to develop lupus later on but it wasn’t enough for me to be diagnosed then.

Fast forward to now, I’m seeing a new rheum who actually does a full body check up every time I see her, my last rheum never even looked at my joints (woohoo for competent thorough doctors!!), and I got new bloodwork done. My ANA is even higher 1:1220 (or something like that) but my rheumatoid factors are negative and I don’t show positive for any joint damage.

On one hand that’s great news cause I’m not having joint damage and I guess we can cross of rheumatoid arthritis(?) but I’m so confused and lost. She’s starting me on hydroxychloroquine which I’m going to take during my next therapy session (huge fear of mine cause of OCD, thank you OCD once again!) and said that because one of my results is high that people with crohns could test positive for that if this med doesn’t help me feel better and low my blood results I might need to get an endoscopy to rule crohns out.

Honestly I’m just struggling coping with not knowing. I know so much of our lives is not knowing what disease we have, what’s going on, what’s the best course of treatment, etc. I have severe anxiety and ocd too which latches on to my health and I’ve honestly been spiraling these past couple weeks.

I’ve been so incredibly exhausted and if I clean (or really do anything) for even 15 minutes I feel so weak and fatigued and my muscles get the shakes like I went to the gym and worked out really hard. My rheum says right now we’re chalking that up to how high my inflammation is because ofc that will make me feel exhausted and shitty but I’m just frustrated and scared. I don’t want to live my life like this, I’m constantly cancelling plans and relying on my husband to do everything for me. I feel like a burden. I’m only 22 and I just don’t know how to cope with having some weird undiagnosed (?) autoimmune disease, chronic migraines, PCOS, OCD, and anxiety. It just all feels like too much

Any advice or tips on what you did is greatly appreciated. And any questions are welcome!