Yes, CA is scary. And there are things RA can do to the lungs too as you mention – so I hope they get to the bottom of it in case it can be treated.

Relentless, yes. My neck is so bad tonight.

It is risky to share with the doctor things that you know may sound “odd.” He could scoff at you and this could affect the way he sees you from here on in. I have done the same. This is not our “fault” & we need to remove the stigma from being able to name our symptoms – sometimes for our survival.

I have PsA and my joints flare pretty much like those who have RA. Two years ago I had simple outpatient arthroscopic surgery on my wrist for tenosynovitis. I came home and six hours post surgery I started gagging – it was awful. I had a wretched sore throat suddenly, too. I called the orth surgeon who confirmed that I was NOT intubated, so that could not have been the cause.

Long story short, I gagged and gagged and hardly ever slept for more than two hours at a time for over three weeks. Trips to UrgentCare were unavailing, but then a Z-packed seemed to kick in. So I figured I had some kind of bacterial infection. [Odd because my WBC wasn't elevated.]

Determined to get to the bottom of this, I saw an ENT, who suggested Cricoarytenoid Arthritis. Then I saw my Rheumatologist – who really does know everything about this branch of medicine, or so I thought – and he blew off the ENT’s suggestion.

About 8 months later, out of nowhere, it happened again. I was in a huge PsA flare at the time and had 5 steroid injections in various joints…….which magically cleared up the gagging. Overnight.

I went back to the ENT and asked him if the Kenalog did this and he said with that many injections at one time, it was possible. This time he wrote out an Rx for low dose cortisone to take the next time this happens.

I should mention that before the last attack I had terrible pain in my shoulders and neck. An MRI didn’t show anything unusal around the area of the larynx. [Were they paying attention?]

It’s the most horrible thing I’ve had to go through with autoimmune disease and I’ve been through the gamut.

But one humorous thing about this: my voice was so low and gravelly for a month or so that friends would tell me that if all else fails, I probably could get a job with a phone sex company. [Just kidding.]

Thanks for posting the articles about this form of inflammatory arthritis. For a long time I really thought I was the only one this was happening to. What a relief.

The most current research I’ve read says this: RA affecting the larynx is common. However, many have not complained of symptoms. So, they say actual symtoms are not as common. I think that may be because people do not know to connect the voice problem to their RA AND do not want to announce one more “weird” sounding symptom to their docs.

NOT everyone will be affected by this, but it IS usually intermittant and the more dangerous symptoms are more rare.

Please try not to worry. I just want to make folks aware – just in case. But, I know how you feel – that’s how I felt when I read about jaw RA (it’s in the Onset Story).