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 time, it was much worse, and they said I had strep throat. It took about 3-4 weeks to get a diagnosis, of Stills and then they put me on the steroids. Within 2 days I was out of hospital although it was a few weeks before I was well again.
Last year and early this year I had 2 flares that were not triggered by a sore throat, interestingly they did not have the high temperatures either, just the pain and fatigue and loss of concentration.
However the last of these flares has taken a very long time to clear, its been over 6 months now and I am still on 20MG of steroids, and still in a bit of pain. Also every time I get the slightest bit of a sore throat, or cold or cough I have a mini-flare again.
There is more detail in by blog. I have a category specifically on Stills.
