26 years old and arthritis is calling the shots...what can I do?

Please never give up. Even though I have RA which is not nearly as debilitating as what you are facing at such a young age, I too was informed of my disease and also the fact that I had a Degenerative Disc Disease back in the late 1970's when I was in nursing school. Since I had an x-ray on file from an earlier accident they saw the degeneration even then. I now await another surgery on my spine in 6 years. The RA comes in and out of remission and I can't take any of the medications because of the side effects and the fact I also have COPD a pulmonary disease, but since you work in a hospital, you might know this.I really sympathize with you on the doctors you have come across. Allot of them have a "God" complex with a lousy bedside manner. Please try to find yet another Rheumatologist. You are about at the odds to meet a good one. I also go to pain management and was lucky enough to be sent to a really great one. I refer to these doctors as keepers. Why aren't you receiving medicare disability for your condition? You are doing everything except water therapy which would help greatly too. This would pay for any prescriptions and doctors with a smaller deductible or completely depending on how much your income is. You can work on disability. For your disease try waking up every morning with a good attitude and tell yourself that this will be a good day. Why didn't your other doctor that retired prescribe a hospital bed with a low impact air mattress for your spine? Try to find out if one will help you and get one prescribed for your condition. You might have a co-pay, but you won't have to pay the small fortune that they cost. With my disability they rent one so I don't have to pay for it. Remember that laughter is the best medicine and try to find a reason to laugh every day. The stress it helps relieve is an added benefit. Never let a doctor or anyone just dismiss you with a good luck attitude, they are people that you pay to look after your health condition. This is their job and if they are bad at it tell them your opinion and then inform the front desk that you are firing them for doing a bad job for your money. I can imagine all the people in the waiting room and what they would think. It would show them that the doctor does work for them also. Maybe if the doctors start to lose enough people they will start doing there jobs. Alas, I suggest that you keep on going with a look to a better future. Even with a pain causing condition it can be possible. I have 35 years on you to look back on. These are my suggestions that I can try to help you have a better life with. I truly wish that at that age, we had a way to communicate with others, and possibly find someone to advise me back then, but there wasn't anything until the 1990's when the first PC's were available to the public. I was born in 1954. That was then. Please ignore my self sympathy for a second. It does slip out once i awhile. What I want to impress upon one so young that you have a good life ahead of you. The possibility's of medicine coming out with something to help you is greater now with the research news getting around the world over the internet in the click of the mouse. I wish you all the luck in the world and God Bless