Rheumatoid Arthritis

Hi, I am really new to posting messages so keep this in mind, please! I am a 40 year old female, mother of 3, with severe RA that was diagnosed 11 years ago. I showed a positive rheumatoid factor approx. 7 years ago and have been on permanent social security disability for the past 6 years. Prior to going on disability I worked as a registered nurse and unfortunately I took really high doses of prednisone just so I could continue to work. As of now, I am still on prednisone 10mg daily. Although lately I am having to bump it up to 20mg when I just can't stand the pain anymore and even that is only giving me minimal relief! I have been on just about everything out there including numerous nsaids, methotrexate, gold, humira, enbrel, kineret, remicade, etc..These meds would work for a few months, although I have never been able to get any lower than 10mg of prednisone daily, and then my rheumatoid would come back in full fury. During my last pregnancy 8 years ago, I did not go into remission at all even on prednisone during the pregnancy.
Basically if it wasn't for the dreaded prednisone, I would be unable to function daily. My last bone scan showed minimal bone loss in my hips, thank God, but I know it is going to catch up with me eventually.
The reason I am posting this message is I am desperately seeking any info on genetic links to rheumatoid within family members. My family hx has a grandmother with RA, a brother with psoriatic arthritis, a sister recently diagnosed with interstitial cystitis and now having symptoms of RA, my son was diagnosed with polymyocitis when he was 3 (he is 17 now and is starting to have symptoms again), and of course myself with RA. Has anyone ever heard of a family history with so much autoimmune diseases? Also, one interesting fact that may not have anything to do with this but my mother used to work as an x-ray technician back in the mid 60's to early 70's. I know back then they didn't know all of the dangers of radiation exposure and she said that she is now getting questionnaires in the mail (from whomever she receives her license from?) asking if she has had any children or herself with autoimmune disorders, cancers, etc.. Forgot to mention that I had a brother who died at the age of 6 in 1980 with a really rare soft tissue cancer, he was the 6th male in the united states at the time to have that form of cancer. Is it possible that my family has so many autoimmune diseases due to radiation exposure? Another interesting fact is that when she was pregnant with me and was working as an xray tech, she had a very large exposure to a radioactive isotope. She had it accidentally poured all over her while performing some sort of scan. She was sent home from work and when she came back the next day, she was unable to perform xrays on patients because she was so "hot" that the xray machines were reading her instead of the patient.
I apologize for this being so lengthy but I really would like to find out anything I can on my unusual family history and my diagnosis with RA. Sometimes getting answers just seems to help I guess! Shannon J

Hi Shannon,

In response to your question, yes, there is quite a bit of research that has been done and is going on showing genetic links to autoimmune disorders. The women in my family have a long history of various autoimmune disorders. However, I have never heard of RA or any autoimmune disorder being caused by radiation or x-ray exposure. But it is an interesting theory to look into.

In my family (those that I know of) my grandmother had scleroderma, her one sister has morphea (a rarer autoimmune disorder), one other has RA and all of her sisters (basically all of the women on my mother's side) have thyroid problems, either Hashimodo's thyroiditis or Grave's disease. My mother had both scleroderma and Sjogren's syndrome. Her only sister has Lupus and she has a brother with psoriasis which is a suspected autoimmune disorder. I have JRA and my sister has Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes).

I have tried to get into a couple of research studies looking at the genetics of families with autoimmune disorders, but so far I have had bad timing as far as when they were looking for participants (and my immediate family members aren't interested). If you or your family members are interested in participating in a study, I wrote about one being condusted at a few different universities around the country in one of my October blogs "Clinical Trials Update". Also, if you have time and in case you would find it helpful, I wrote a blog in July about a recent study finding 3 genes linked to RA and another in October called "Genetics & Sex Affect RA".

I hope this is helpful for you. At least to show there are other families (probably many) out there with a strong history of autoimmune disorders.

Christine

Yes my family has a history of auto immune diseases. Both my great grandfathers on my mothers side were not allowed into WWI because of Rhuematism. My great grandfathers twin died of diabetes. My great aunt died of lupus. Both my mothers parents have thyroid conditions.I have a 21 yr old cousin that was diagnosed with vasculitis. And 6 months after she was diagnosed with vasculitis I was diagnosed with RA. All these people are on my mothers side. Gotta love those ancestors.