I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in October 2024. They symptoms persisted for around 3 months until I managed to get a proper care. It has been a long journey, but happy to say that now I am living a pretty normal life and sometimes I even forget that I have this condition.
From barely being able to go downstairs and not being able to fall asleep at night due to pain – to now brisk walking around Tbilisi old town uphills and downhils with no pain or swelling in my knees or ankles whatsoever – I am grateful for the recovery.
!!!! If you are someone who was recently diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis - do not get hopeless. The diagnosis and some stories on reddit sound bad, but it does not have to be your experience. It deffinitely is not mine anymore.
With complex care you can live a pretty normal life and even thrive - do a lot of stuff and live a good life.
I’ll give you my example: with proper complex care I was able to recover from devestating fatigue and I was able to work full time + run this blog + take projects on side. Luckily now I only dedicate my time to this blog and architecture design projects full time. Dream come true.
I’ll tell you more: last month I was able to travel to the historic Tao-Klarjeti (modern day Turkey – but historic Georgian territories) and hike up to and down from Artanuji Castle. I mean, not all th way up, but it was quite a walk. I would not dream of it a year ago.
Symptoms and diagnosis
My case is a bit different – I have seronegative rheumatoid arthritis, which means I have normal rheumatoid factor, Anti-MCV, and anti-CCP. The diagnosis was based on clinical picture and elevated CRP (and ESR). Right now they are normal again too.
The initial diagnosis was Reactive arthritis, but as the symetry in affected finger joints became evident, my diagnosis was upgraded to Rheumatoid.
As for symptoms before the diagnosis: two swollen and painful knees, swollen and painful ankles, several swollen and painful toes, jaw, and several fingers. It was a complete disaster: I have cried several times out of pain and helplesness at the airport while coming back to my country (I was living abroad when I got sick).
Initial treatment
Initially we started with Sulfasalazine (1000mg per day and slowly ramping up to 2500), Airtal (an NSAID – aceclofenac – milder than Diclofenac or Indomethacine), and Defal (Deflazacortum).
Somehow the sympoms persisted beyond the timeline that Sulfasalazine should have started to work. However, my doctor decided to wait a bit more before switching to Methotrexate and it was a great decision, because soon after I got much better.
I have to mention here that by that time I went to Turkey – Acibadem hospital and took tons of labs. The rheumatologist there pointed out how low my vitamin D was (it was 6. 30 is defficient, btw.), so I started to suplement with vitamin D – 50K IU per week.
My (arguable) assumption is that suplementing vit D really helped out the treatment somehow.
In addition to that, I started taking Curcumin, which might also helped.
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So, in about 5 months after starting the treatment, I started a new job in my homecountry. Looking back, it was not super easy to work for about 3-4 months, because my ankles would swell in the shoes after sitting for hours, and my knees were not still that smooth while going down on a stair.
In about 3-4 months (so, 9 months of treatment in total) I started to notice massive improvements – my ankles were not swelling anymore and slowly but surely i started running down on the stairs. well, there were other things I did that helped the situation, I believe, and I will talk about them below.
What persisted (and still kinda persists) was the localized inflamation in my finger joiuts – left hand 3rt pip, 2nd DIP, and right hand 2nd pip, 3rd pip. There is deffinitely simmetry.
2nd round of meds
After around 10-11 months on Sulfasalazine my doctor suggested to switch to Methotrexate, since the localised inflamation in finger joints persisted and we needed to take action.
She suggested to use local cortisone injections in finger joints but I decided not to. Maybe I will regret it – maybe I won’t. So far – I do not regret it. She was suggested joint injections in the ankles and knees as well, but I waited and it got resolved.
So, by October 2025 I started on Methotrexate – 10MG weekly at the beginning and slowly ramped up to 20. In addition to that, I was taking Airtal as needed.
it did not show significant improvements within 6 momths and I decided to experiment and take Sulfasalazine on top of it. Combination therapy is accepted approach, and as research suggests, it can be more effective than single DMARD therapy. However the risk was that it would stress the liver and that’s exactly what happened – my liver enzymes got 5x-ed and I had to stop both meds for about a month.
You say: you can’t stop DMARDs for the whole month, it would worsen the situation. Well I say to you, pound sand, it’s been more than a month and I am doing the same.
Anyway, I had a checkup last week with my rheumy and since the liver enzymes are good again, we can start on Leflunomide.
It was a strange realization that even though I was not taking any drugs at all for a month, my CRP was lower (1.99) than it has consistently been (2.35-3 range) while I was on Methotrexate. I also purposefully ate quite a good amount of sugar the day before the labs. Weird stuff.
So, my 3rd round of mets would be Leflunomide, I guess and hopefully it will resolve the residual finger issues fingers crossed (pun intended).
All the stuff I did on side on top of regular meds that doctors frown upon but I think helped
I believe that the body is much more complex than treating issues with a single med. I believe that the reasons that led me to this path were complex and therefore the treatment needed to be complex. I believe in what my rheumatologist says and I take the meds religiously, but i also believe that you need to take complex measures to address complex issues, like autoimmunity.
here’s what I did throughout this journey:
1. Homemade bone broth
My mom started to get me some grass-fed beef bones and ligaments from a trusted source and I started to consume all of it – the beef, the colagen-rich tissues and the broth. I noticed that it really helped me not only in terms of joint health, but also overall strength, mood and energy.
And it does not harm the skin as well 😉 I am 34.
2. Beef liver
I am not sure why – maybe because of meds – at some point I was severly anemic. So I started cooking beef liver once a week and having two days in a row. It definitely helped me with energy and strength.
3. Radon bath therapy in Tskaltubo
Tskaltubo resort in the west of Georgia is really famous for its radon-rich baths and people with joint and autoimmune issues come from neighboring countries and lately from Europe as well.
Honestly, i did not believe in this and I was skeptical, but I also did not want to upset my mom who has been such an incredible support in health journey, so I went there for two weeks.
The deal is that in the beginning you visit the rheumatologist there and she prescribes procedures. The beginners are usually not allowed to go for physio or massage or mud baths. So for two weeks every day I would go and lay in the bath for 20minutes twice a day. The radon-rich water comes up straight from the earth and the temperature is pretty pleasant. If you do not move, the tiny bubbles settle on your skin and that’s the whole therapy – the gas bubbles somehow do the job to modulate the immune system and help with the joints.
Actually, radon therapy is pretty popular in Japan and there is a famous resort in Austria as well (Gastein Healing Gallery – Center for Radon Therapy) but I assume the Tskaltubo is much cheaper.
The situation was quite pleasant – chill and relaxed. The actual buildings are from Soviet era, but the baths and appliances are modern and the staff take a good care of the Cleanliness as well.
I am definitely going back again. This time I am getting my massages as well!!!!!
4. Mumio (Shilajit)-based alternative medicine suplement
As I already said, my mom is obsessed with my health and is out there looking for every possible solution. Honestly, I am sometimes a bit sick of it, but what can I do.
So some time ago she found some post or article on socials by this woman selling suplement for joint strength and she got agitated. One of the comments she spotted belonged to someone she knew from my hometown.
I live in Tbilisi, the woman that sells the suplements is in Tbilisi, but one can see a lot of comments from all around Georgia. I was almost sure those were all bots and brushed the idea off.
My mom does not give up that easily. As I mentioned above, she spotted a grateful, praising comment from someone from our hometown. It is a small town, people know each other and people share experiences. So she got dressed and visited the lady to ask about more details.
Long story short, she got me the suplement and I was basically force-fed it. It tastes absolutely disgusting and I have to dring water right after it, but as far as I observed, it definitely helped.
It is a mix of grounded Shilajit, curcumin and god only knows what else, but as far as it helps – I take it.
5. Got rid of everyone and everything that was getting on my nerves (except for my mom)
I became merciless about my peace. Dumped everyone who was messing around and got away from every situation that was costing me good night sleep.
I am no longer a foreigner, and I am no longer in a relationship with someone whose priority was everyone and everything else other than me while expecting the opposite from me.
I mind my own business and protect my peace at all cost. I also take my sleep very seriously.
Since my blog covers all my living costs in Georgia, I decided to leave the job as a full-time architect. As of now, I wake up by 10-11am every morning, slowly drink my Turkish coffee and mind my own business as I see fit.
I refuse to take any sort of comitment and be responsible to give account to anyone else. I believe that my nervous system got as calm as it has never been.
