I get to stay on Remicade!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!
Well for one more infusion anyways. RD talked to my GP, and he told her he felt it was something else other than the Remicade. RD does not agree, she believes Remicade is causes me to have high blood pressure, which resulted in the stroke. She RXed me some kind of med that dialates the arteries & veins, that I have to take before & after my Remicade infusion.
Rd said I was going to cause her to have a heart attack. She just is so undecided as to what to do with me. She pondered and talked and wrote RXs and then took them back to change them. She is just not sure how to go about keeping my RA in check and me not to have another stroke. She said my pulse was still fast, but not that bad.
So... since I am not doing so well right now. I get to bump pred to 20mg, Nortriptyline has been bumped to 80mg. When I get my infusion next week, I can go back down to 10mg on the prednisone and then when I go back to her in 2 months then she is going to see if I can be weaned off the prednisone. She said I just have way too much swelling and problems going on right now to wean me.
RD said my right leg crap is fibro. I am starting to agree with her, because today... my leg is much much better than it had been all week and yesterday. I woke up and was able to bend my knee and no pain in my thigh or even muscle feeling stressed out after walking on it. She said I had a lot of inflammation still. She feels my right leg crap is fibro & RA, nothing more. She pressed on my hips and OMG!!!! I about fell down because of the pain.
She gave me some exercise to do to help loosen up the thigh/hip muscles. So... now that I can move my leg again I will do them.
She said ultracet was ok to take with the Nortriptyline. So... now I have some pain meds that I can take more than 2 times a day, if need be!!
She told me if I feel the least bit funny or something not right after I get my next infusion to not wait to see how it plays out to just go to the ER and tell them that I had a stroke before. I was like OK!
Oh and she done more blood work on me. She is checking me for Lupus because something about lupus patients have a higher rate of having a stroke. I thought she already checked me for it, but she says my file shows she did not. She also is checking my cholestoral and seeing if I am diabetic because of how long I have been on prednisone.
Today I gave 13 vials of blood over!!! It was just pitiful!
But that is what I got and she said most of my complaints should be fixed with the Remicade infusion next week. So we are going that route again. Suites me fine.
I see her in 2 months and I get my infusion May 16. I have a GP appt Thursday.
joonie2008-05-05 13:58:13Oh and no pain meds & muscle relaxers since midnight last night!! I do not have much pain, it is not even pain that would call for a darvocet. So... I am in staring to believe move toward the fibro camp! LOL!!Whew! That's a lot of info to digest! I wish you all the best going forward with her new directions!ok so you have a plan right now thats a good thing. Now keep in mind you have to do your part too...so that leg start hurting be smart and use the cart when you shop..don't push it to the point of no return. Exercise is good but for you at this point a little will go a long way. Give your body a chance to recoverYeah, i know I forgot some things she talked about, but at least I remembered that much LOL!!
RD even knows me by name, without looking at my file! That is a shame... for me anyways. She passed me in the hall and said "hello Mrs. Mynamehere, you might be able to stay on Remicade! I will tell you more later."
I was like cool!!!!
I know, buckeye. I have been riding the electric carts when they are available. I rode one the other day. And kept running hubby over because he was walking slow and in my way. LOL!!i hope all goes well. sounds like you had a good check up and a very concerned doctor. keep us all posted. enjoy your evening, you deserve it! wonderwomanOh and I am back to weighing 168! 2 weeks ago I was 174! I guess the extra water from starting coreg went away. I am happy about that too. what is coreg? w.w.High Blood pressure pill.
I also remember what the name of that artie and vein dialating med she RXed me is ... Aggrenox. I have to take one before in fusion and another one the day after infusion. She said it is used as a preventive measure for strokes.
hi joonie a lot going on there. i hope the orencia works for you..
i see you have had a stroke. high cholestoral and high blood pressure
are a good mix for a stoke. allthough the meds can have these results.
so can ra push up the cholestoral and severe pain can push up bp..
saying this my bp was normal for 13yrs of ra untill i took arava for 2nd time
round. then it went up and not came down. i now take ramipril. i am on statins
for cholestoral..my docs say pain sent up bp.. not to sure about that.
it is good to see you have a doc looking at all angles..
oh wonderd do you have tinitus whith your high bp..
wishing you well..
Boney
Good luck with all the changes Jooney. You sure do deserve it!
Biscuit! I'm kinda happy too.....sure is good to hear you're feeling so good, and that you'll be feeling even better soon. I was already happy, but now I'm extra happy!I'm happy that you are happy! And I'm glad they wil be monitoring closely. Good luck!!Wow! This is the happiest I have ever "seen" you Joonie! Great news that maybe some real help is coming your way. Hang in there.
I'm happy that you're happy, and everyone else is happy that you're happy, so BE HAPPY!
LOL Seriously, I hope that remicade knocks the ra to the curb!
Well... I am very hopeful Remicade will help me greatly. I know from just those 3 weeks I was doing so well and I just did not want to lose that. I still had some swelling, but that was because I was taking 300mg. I am not sure if she is going to bump the Remicade to 400 like she was going to before all this mess. I do know I am back to getting it every 8 weeks again. She did have me getting it every 6 weeks, but she is afraid to let me get it is sooner, than 8 weeks now.
Welp, I hope all my other blood testing comes back good. But then we will all still be stuck with "theories" of how this all happened and no real answers. I know I am not diabetic, I am not sure about the cholesterol and not sure about the Lupus. At one time my symptoms were of Lupus, but never mentioned it to RD. Because I figured she had checked me for it like she said when she done all that blood work when I first went to her, but she did not order the lupus testing. So...
I am just REALLY HAPPY to be able to stay on Remicade. It really does help me. PLUS, I did not want to have to go thru all of that mess to change to another biological.
We'll see what GP says Thursday!
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