Nic asked for some more details on my early history of Stills.

There is a great message board available for people who suffer from Still’s.  Nic responded to one of my articles asking for more info on my early history.  Here is my answer:

It just started out of the blue.  I was in London at a conference, I started with a sore throat in the morning, by lunch time my legs were hurting, I managed to walk to the train in the evening, but could not get off the train by 10:00.  The doctors had no idea, and just gave me anti-histamines for a week, but they had no effect, after a couple of weeks I was mobile again, although it took 6 weeks for symptoms to really damp down.  After which I was essentially symptom free for 18 months.  I had a few aches and pains but I did not really relate these to the Stills flare. 

When I had my second flare it too was triggered by a sore throat, again it was not diagnosed, but this time died down after about 2-3 weeks without medication.

My third flare was about 12 months after and was also triggered by a sore throat.  I managed to get into hospital this …