I have been a little scared lately

When I was in middle school, my knees ached and ached, and were swollen. I was finally diagnosed with JRA, otherwise known as Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Back then, I took baby aspirin for it and did physical therapy to strengthen my leg muscles, and got to miss PE class for a year. By high school, it had pretty much gone away. Since then, I haven't had any major problems, and I am 37. My knees crack and pop when I go up stairs, and occasionally ache if the weather is changing, but that's about it.

But starting last winter, my hands have started bothering me, and one of my feet, where the toes attach. Last winter was really bad on some days, to the point where I was taking Ibuprofen all the time, to where my stomach got sensitive to it. By April of this year, it started to get better, and I thought maybe the with the weather warming up, that was helping.

But in the last few weeks, my hands and toes have started hurting again. :-( I can't bear the thought of going through another winter like last year.

So I guess I really need to go to the Dr, but I'm scared too. The idea of taking major drugs just doesn't appeal, but neither does suffering in pain. I often wonder if I'll need to have knee replacement or something like that when I get older, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see.