I'm with you on the worry over our kids Suzanne and Jill. I have three girls an I'm terrified every time they have an ache or pain. One of them even said lord I hope I'm not getting what you have mom. I left the room a bit later and just cried. It's all so frustrating. Hugs to you all.

I have no history of autoimmune disease in my family. I did have a recent scare with my daughter though. She's only 17 but has had lower back pain for over a year. Her doctor had her blood drawn for the possibility of Ankylosing Spondilitis. It really scared me. It's much easier to accept that something is wrong with myself than my children. It's all good though - came back a big negative! {sigh}

My family carries the HLA-B27 gene that gives us a high likelihood of getting autoimmune diseases. My younger brother has Chrones, I have an older brother with degenerative back problems, I have RA. I have an aunt with psoriatic arthritis, and both parents had arthritis that wasn't specifically diognised. It was part of my blood panel that it showed up in during diagnoses for me. Then I started asking questions of my family.

Yes, I think a whole lot of us have genetic ties to this disease, Peggy. I didn't know anyone with RA in my family,but my mom had autoimmune issues with MS.

It is very interesting to see how many have auto immune diseases in their family. My paternal aunt has RA and her daughter has an auto immune too but not RA. My mom and dad both have osteo arthritis but not RA. As far as I know that is all of the family members that have it.