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The first thing that I noticed was I felt like I had twisted my knee. And I had gone out walking with a neighbor friend pushing the strollers, me and daughter and her and her daughter, and I thought, "I don't remember twisting my knee, but I definitely twisted my knee." It feels like I twisted my knee, and it got progressively worse over a couple of days. Right as I was about to call a doctor, it went away. The next week it came back. OK, now I know I did not twist my knee, but it felt like I had twisted my knee. And I also knew it would go away. So I waited and it went away. The next time it happened about a week later, it was my shoulder, and it was the same feeling, and I thought, "I definitely did not twist my shoulder." And I didn't know what to do. It happened on a Friday, and if you ever had your shoulder go out or something I hadn't, you can't do anything without your shoulder. I sat down on the couch on that Friday and I pretty much did not get up until Sunday when it started to feel better. I just sat there because I didn't know what to do, and I couldn't -, I was so limited, and that had never happened. I never experienced that.

Monday... I talked to my mom over the weekend. My mom has rheumatoid arthritis and her reaction was sort of, "Uh-oh, that pain sounds familiar." So Monday I called the doctor and I went in and he agreed I should see a rheumatologist. He took some blood work, and that sort of started the process.

I worked with my rheumatologist over the next nine months. The symptoms got progressively worse. For me, they sort of bounced around different places in my body. They weren't just in my hands and feet, and my rheumatologist said that's pretty common, and it will eventually probably settle more in hands and feet, but I've always still had problems in some other joints. We got to the point where he said, "Yup, it's official. We've done enough, we've watched it enough, we know this is definitely what it is. We've ruled out everything else, and it's rheumatoid arthritis.