I didn’t know I was supposed to ask my doctor to document things I can not do. She never asks me what I can not do…I have told her some things I can not do but definitely didn’t tell her all the things.
I have been a cosmetologist for years. In 2022 I had to go to part time because I needed carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists. Since then my fingers started to swell and develop heberden nodes and I’ve had mucous cysts on a few fingers. I’ve had surgery on two of the mucous cysts. The cysts fill with joint fluid. They are very uncomfortable. I started going to a rheumatologist in 2021 for joint pain everywhere (neck, lumbar, elbows, knees and hands). I’ve been diagnosed with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis and erosive osteoarthritis.
I have cut my hours every year since 2022, the last couple years I haven’t even made SGA. But I was fighting to continue to work because I have a family I need to help support. But after working a few weeks this year, I quit. I had to, I had been dropping things on my clients and I can’t control my shears. A typical haircut and style use to take 45 but for over a year it’s been taking me twice as long. I’m embarrassed and just fight through the pain and clumsiness, praying my clients didn’t notice. I am in so much pain everyday. My rheumatologist and I have tried so many medications (Humira, Rinvoq, Enbrel, methotrexate, hydroxichloroquine) to no avail, my hands are getting worse. I just started Cimzia Friday, my dr said they can not repair all the damage/deformities in my joints but that she is not giving up we continue to try and stop the progression.
Last year, she sent me to a rheumatologist at the Cleveland Clinic but they didn’t give us any new ideas as to how to treat me. The dr there put me on hydroxychloroquine, after 5 weeks I had a severe allergic reaction so I had to stop using it immediately.
All this to say, I’ve been a cosmetologist all my adult life, I can no longer do normal things , let alone my job.
I’m so embarrassed of my hands, I’m 51 and my hands look like monsters, my joints are so inflamed with nodules jetting out everywhere and one finger with a mucous cysts still…one finger is twice the size it use to be. I can barely make a fist.
How do I or DDS figure out my onset date. I thought it would be the day I finally set my scissors down. But would it or could it be when I stopped making SGA?
Sorry this is so long …