Sharon Rettig

Hi, I am a 25 years old and have been diagnosed with Stills now for a little
over a year.  It has been a long a painful road, but with the help of a wonderful doctor, I can almost live pain free.  It all started a couple of
years ago when I was working at a hospital as a phlebotomist, I of course was around sick people everyday.  I stated to develop rashes primarily on my hands that would move up my arm.  At first they would send me to a dermatologist to see if I was allergic to latex, and I wasn't.  I was put on a couple different medications for allergies to see if it helped, and also scared by the doctor for he felt it was some form of hepatitis, or HIV.  All the tests came back fine, and he had no real answer for me which was disturbing, his answer for me was the medication.  About a month later the
medication (at least this is what we think) caused my liver to almost shut down completely.  Within a matter of days I was jaundice, my liver enzymes were in the thousands (40-50 is normal), and my Protime (that tells how thick your blood is and 12 is normal) was 47.  That day the doctors say that I was very lucky to have made it.  All the while the rash seem to have subsided, but I was home for a couple of months recovering from this terrible sickness I had over come.  I quit the hospital I was sure I caught it from there, and I started to notice stiffness of my joints while I was working.

       I started searching for a new job, and to try to put the past behind me in the meantime my boyfriend whom stuck by me through thick and thin became my fiance, so I had so much to look forward to.  I got a great new job
as an orthodontic assistant, and was really enjoying it.  I had started in October of '99, and I wasn't employed there for but a week and I started to get a horrible rash again on my arms, thighs, and all over my back, the
itching was unbearable, it also hurt to the point of no comfort.  I had to call off the first week of training, I was so afraid of losing my new job,
but at the same time afraid of what was happening to my body.  I started aching, and swelling all over, I had the chills so bad the hottest bath could not be hot enough, and fevers were spiking up to 104 F.  I went to a rheumy, and had to go through extensive testing my lymph nodes were swollen,  I had
the wait of being tested for lupus, hepatitis, HIV, and even lymphoma.  I had
to get a lymph biopsy done of two lymph nodes, which both came back fine. In
the meantime my fiance and I were trying to build a house, and also plan a wedding.  My Dr. finally diagnosed me with Stills, like many of you, as long as it wasn't life threatening, I didn't care what the diagnosis was, just to
put a name on it was heaven to my ears!  Even though I'm on folic acid, claritin, voltaren, methotrexate, and pred., and I've had a cortisone injection, in both of my wrists so far, to know what I have and I'm not the only one is comforting. There are still times that I have flare ups, and am in so much pain I can't barely stand it, I just think back on the long hard
road that brought me through this, and thank God that I'm here to talk about it.  The only battle now that I face is the fact that my husband and I are ready to start a family, and the thought of getting off my meds scare my to
death, for fear that I might have to relive my past, although my doctor says that sometimes all symptoms subside and the body takes over for 9 months, I can only hope.  So if anyone out there has had children after the fact please
e-mail your experience to me, it would be greatly appreciated by my husband
and I.  Thanks for taking time to read my story, and I hope all is well!  :)

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