I went from literally throwing myself across the stage to not being able to move overnight. Quite the thing to have gone from studying immunology to feeling the full power of it. Essentially my immune system thinks my own tissue is an infection and that tissue is literally everywhere. Nose to toes. Joints, tendons, ligaments, organs.

In RA, the synovial tissue becomes markedly expanded, with a striking increase in cellular infiltration. This leads to hallmark “pannus” formation at cartilage-bone interfaces; pannus can be composed of macrophages, FLS, leucocytes, plasma cells, and mast cells (14), and behaves like a locally invasive tumor, mediating damage and erosion formation in later disease (15). 

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2019.00045/full

I’m celebrating surviving all of this.