Wayne, my wife has had RA for about five years. She could barely get out of bed in the AM, had lost a good bit of weight, was EXTREMELY tired all the time and her joints were really hurting.
She went to our family doctor who is a family friend. He couldn't pinpoint any cause and I think he gave her something for the pain.
I went on the 'net and in researching osteoarthritis, I came upon a battery of questions to help determine if one has RA (a completely different animal from osteoarthritis). I started going down the battery of questions and she "hit" on practically every one.
I called the Doc and told him what I had found. He had her come back in and he ran the tests but they came back negative. At that point he referred her to a rheumatologist.
When we went to see the rheumatologist, he started asking questions and they were almost word for word the questions I had found on the 'net. He confirmed that she had RA, some osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia. He started her on methotrexate at a low dose, then later he upped the dose and she got better but the RA was still active. After a few months on methotrexate he prescribed weekly Enbril shots. As I understand it, Doctors are required to try methotrexate first before prescribing one of the "biologics". I believe she's also taking Mobic for the fibromyalgia.
UNBELIEVABLE turnaround within a week of me giving her the first injection! Now she is almost back to normal. She still gets a little fatigued at times but she can do practically everything she wants to do. She never really never learned how to swim well as a kid so she decided she wanted to take the swimming course at a local junior college. She liked it so much that she is now swimming laps several times a week.
Pain meds may help with the pain but it won't stop your immune system from attacking your joints. According to her rheumatologist, my wife's RA has gone into remission based on semi-annual X-rays. He said her blood "sed rate" is very good at this point.
If you check out the RA questionaire on various RA websites and you get several "hits", you need to get that referral to a rheumatologist as soon as possible to arrest the joint damage.
Good Luck!
