Maddie's story: Everything changed overnight

Young, active and living With arthritis

Maddie Balmer, 19, from Northern Ireland, woke up one morning in April 2024 in extreme pain and unable to walk because her knee and ankle were so swollen. Eventually diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, Maddie’s condition is managed with medication and she is currently enjoying university life in Scotland. She found Arthritis UK’s stories made her feel less alone on her journey and hopes sharing her story will reduce that sense of isolation for other young people with arthritis.

A sudden illness with no answers

I was driving home one night and my neck felt really stiff but I thought nothing of it, just assumed I’d slept funny. The next morning I could barely move, couldn’t turn, lift my head or legs and was in so much pain. I remember crying as I texted my Dad downstairs to help, he took me to hospital where a doctor suggested paracetamol and sent me home. 

We also tried ice packs and ibuprofen gel to bring down the inflammation because my knee was so swollen but by the morning the pain had spread to my right ankle, left knee, neck, back and shoulders. My sister called an ambulance then had to persuade paramedics to take me to hospital where we spent 10 hours in A&E. I had x-rays, blood tests and they gave me Co-Codamol and even morphine at one point.

Learning to live with arthritis

I then saw another doctor who admitted me, saying they couldn’t send me home in that much pain with no obvious cause. The next morning a rheumatologist came and did an ultrasound on my knee which showed a lot of fluid so they used a big needle to drain it then gave me a steroid injection which was horrific and so sore.

That afternoon a physiotherapist came but every time my toes touched the ground an indescribable pain went through my legs so they left me to rest, eat and build up my energy.

A few days later I was able to walk a few feet, another few days and I could move with crutches so they sent me home with crutches but still no real answers as to what was wrong.

At home the pain was no better so, after a few days, we called the hospital and I was prescribed six-a-day steroid tablets. Over the next couple of weeks I was back at hospital twice as I was still unable to bear pressure and after another steroid injection which should have helped me to walk, I fell to the floor. That’s when the rheumatologist first suggested it could be rheumatoid arthritis.

I was on crutches for almost eight weeks and on the steroid tablets for six weeks before starting reduce the dose which made me progressively worse and by the time I was down to three tablets a day, I knew something was still very wrong. We called our GP who referred me to a different rheumatologist who I am still with today. 

She sent me to another hospital where they did a full body work up, all my joints and my eyes too as I’d had uveitis since Covid but not connected it to the arthritis. She prescribed methotrexate and I decided on injections as it bypassed my stomach and, hopefully, wouldn’t make me feel sick. After three weeks returning to hospital to learn how to inject and dispose of needles, the medication started to work, I felt better and I could walk again.

I was still using crutches so was worried about my exams in the May but they gave me a scribe and a reader and I managed to get the grades I needed for university which was such a relief. When I went there in September 2024 I took crutches, my methotrexate and painkillers as a precaution, everything I needed in case things went wrong. I did have a uveitis flare in the October but steroid drops from the local hospital cleared that up.

Unfortunately, by the time I went home at Christmas the methotrexate was making me physically sick, so much so that I’d not taken it for a week and my legs were really itchy. I called my rheumatologist who suggested trying tablets so, a week after Christmas, I started six tablets every Thursday which left me feeling sick and exhausted every Friday.

I did keep taking them until last September but had started reducing the dose by then and felt it must be okay because my body wasn’t reacting but, when I told my boyfriend, he said it wasn’t sensible to change the dose myself so I went back to six but felt so horrible.
I managed to see my rheumatologist when I was home last Christmas and explained everything. I asked if methotrexate was my only option because I’d developed anxiety because I was terrified of feeling sick all the time. I’ve never had health related anxiety before but I think it’s also about not understanding how this happened, the unknown has left me with the fear it could happen again.

I was prescribed sulfasalazine, an immunosuppressant and started taking it in January this year. The rheumatologist did explain I could be at more risk of illness but I’ve been fine so far and I have a great support community at university. 

After initially being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, then zero negative arthritis because it wasn’t showing up in bloods, I was finally diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis late last year after my rheumatologist looked into my family history and found a few members have psoriasis.

Why awareness matters

When the word ‘arthritis’ was first thrown at me I felt like it couldn’t be true because, like many people, I thought it only happened when you got older. It was hard going into school on crutches watching everyone else celebrate the end of exams as I missed out. I did have moments where I wondered what I’d done to get arthritis but I’ve had to make my peace with it.

I found Arthritis UK after an influencer I follow on Instagram tagged them, so I went to the website and read the stories which were heart-breaking but made me feel less alone, like I wasn’t the only person in the world going through this. That’s why I want to spread awareness of arthritis in young people, to help them feel less alone.