Both sides of my family! Lucky me!!

It sounds as though your family has certainly had more than their share of medical problems. I don't have a history nearly that bad, but.....
My sister and I were raised by different relatives in different parts of the country, rarely saw each other growing up and still to this day hardly ever get together. I contracted RA when I was @12 years old. By the time I was 18, it was very bad. (I'm going somewhere with this.) The uncle who raised her visited one time when I was 18 and went back home and, of course talked to her about how bad my arthritis was. Within a year or two, she had contracted the disease. My sister is a very sensitive person, so I have always wondered if her RA is because of genetics, or because she is so empathetic that she developed the disease because she was so concerned about me, or just a coincidence.
On another note, my son's paternal grandfather had RA. My son is 45 now and no sign of it.

I definitely think there is in my family, but when I discuss this with doctors, they don't all think it is significant.

My grandfather had ankolosing spodolitis followed by leukemia, my sister has Hasimoto's thyroditis and so do I, my sister also has vitiligo, my mother has arthritis and has had thyroid cancer, and my son had a right hemispherectomy (removal of the right half of his brain) due to an untreatable seizure disorder when he was a baby which we now think was Rasmussen's disease (an autoimmune disease which affects the brain).

My son is now 25 and has many aches and pains due to the left side of his body being uneven and less functional than the right. My biggest worry is his biological father has RA too, so the genetic thing is significant for my son. He has started living healthy, taking supplements which are helping, and is going to get tested for RA - but that might not show up right away.

So, I believe everyone should at least consider their family history and possibly hold off a disease as long as possible.

I'm still wondering why I have RA. None of my relatives are diagnosed with it and I don't have any of the risk factors that are written about. Total mystery. The wonderful thing is that being a nurse and having access to numerous literature and research, I was able to advocate for myself and got an early diagnosis, on a biological promptly, and good insurance to pay most of the high cost of therapy. I live close to "remission" and still work full time; missing little work. I know, I'm the exception. This is a horrible disease we have.

My mother surfers from Athritist and my Aunty was in a wheelchair do to Athritist.