Well, Round Two of Rituxan is about to happen for me. Yay, glad its working a bit better... i too can tell the slight difference and even a bit of difference is big for us!!! PS...you are already fabulous, your RA maybe not.
Thanks, Innerglow, that's nice what you said.
I saw my rheumy last Thursday and he is setting it up now. Should happen this month, hopefully starting in the next couple of weeks.
Rheumy believes that Round Two will give me even more relief than Round One and Round Three even more etc.
I knew this was all coming since November so nothing out of the ordinary there.
My rheumy believes that we are getting better control of my RA, that although I am not fabulous yet, it is working.
When I was flaring so badly for that six weeks just recently, Mrs A suggested I try Prednisone again. It had never worked for me in the past. I mean, made NO difference whatsoever. So I talked to my GP and she put me on a short course.
This time it worked, I got movement back and then the pain went right down and it really broke the flare.
This had never happened before with me. I could have 120mg shot of Pred and not feel a thing.
My RD believe the Rituxan is controlling the RA better and that's why the Pred worked this time.
Next time I flare he wants me on a short course of it to break the flare earlier.
So since then I am having good days and bad days, more good than bad definitely which is a whole lot better than them all being a nightmare, like they are when I am flaring.
So I will let you all know when exactly I am off to my fun infusions. I can hardly wait.
And Whispered, I got a total visual of you snoring through your infusion,
Thanks, Jesse. Yes, I am doing better in the last few weeks. That Pred course I took absolutely broke that flare but it has never done it for me before ever. It was SO awful and unfortunately ALL my flares have been that sort of nightmare. And many of them lasting a lot longer than that. In fact, overall in the past year and a half, I considered I have been in a flare with more acute flares happening within it. Most of last year I was basically bedridden and housebound. Not good when you are a single parent of a six year old.
Now with the Pred working we have a chance of hitting it hard early on. We have never had that option before as since Pred did nothing for me because my RA was so uncontrollable, we had nothing to fight it with, I am already maxed out on narcotics.
And yes, you can tell how I am feeling by how active I am on here. When I am really unwell, I can barely sit here at the computer, barely type and I have no energy to participate. Blah!
Hey Cordy...how did it ever work out when your house flooded? id your landlord take care of it? I never heard the end of that story.Oh, Link. I meant to tell you. They blamed me for the flooding. They are a rotten property management place. They have bullied me a lot and discriminated against my RA situation instead of being compassionate. The woman screamed at me on the phone and refused to help with the clean up. I dried my carpet out with the air conditioner. Two months later it was discovered that the flood occurred due to something that the past owner had done. STRESSFUL!!! The carpet took about two days to dry out but wasn't too bad in the end. No smell at least . The new owners I have are fabulous. The next time that agency bullies me I am going to my solicitor, the anti discrimination commission and the media. _popupControl();
The good old Pred is working, great stuff in my book.
When the ache thermometer starts rising so does my Pred intake.
I might be on five but will bump it in 2.5mg increments up to 10 then start to taper back down to 5mg.
When that don't work I know I'm in for a rough time.
Thanfully it works 9 out of 10 times.
Good to hear that things are on the up and up Cord's.
Pred, never ever worked for me, Stephen before this time when I tried it, as my RA was so out of control.
My rheumy believes why it worked this time is that the Rituxan underneath everything is getting control of this disease at last.
I went on 50mg for five days and then 24mg for seven days. That did the trick this time. I got movement back first and then the pain settled.
I have been off it about three weeks now and pretty stable so that is good too. I wasn't sure if when I stopped I would flare again but I haven't, thank goodness.
Cordy I am so happy for you and glad your feeling a little less pain. I am sure Neve is the happiest of all.
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