Does anyone know how they classify the severity of your RA. It
would be really help to me to find out- i've been searching the net,
books etc but it's hard to understand. I know they say that they
tailor your treatment towards the severity of the disease, but how do
you know if you have agressive ra or moderate or mild - has anyone been
told by ra or have any insight on this thanks and hope you are
all well today - i am not sadly - think the sandwich i ate yesterday
has sent the wheat monster after me during the night
At my last visit my rheumy told me I'd gone from mild to moderate, but I
have no idea what the criteria are! see that's exactly what i don't understand either it's so confusing -
and how can you jump up a catagory - i hope you can jump back down too
That would be good! Like snakes and ladders
I remember someone posting this article in a different forum, might answer some of your questions :
http://www.hopkins-arthritis.som.jhmi.edu/edu/acr/acr.html#p rog_rheum
Hope it helps, Moonie x
Interesting link Moonie...I had never seen that before. Thank you. In 1992 I was told that I had severe agressive RA and got the wheelchair speech. I had the joint deformation and xrays showed damage to several joints. I started out on plaquenil and it didn't work, so went to MTX, had 3 surgeries, now humira, and I don't feel that bad. I think that with good treatment people can live a long and healthy life, but of course with this disease you will still have some aches. My quality of life went from worse to much better, with some bumps in the road. I, like Murphette, was dx'd with severe aggressive RA back in 1986 and didn't have the Rx options that are around today. Did many years of the trial and error thing and couldn't stop the progression. Had the joint replacement surgeries and got back on my feet. Finally stopped the progression with Remicade. Been off of Remicade for almost 2 yrs. and even though I still have some very badly damaged joints, my pain is at a minimum. I'm presently on MTX, Imuran and Prednisone. So it's possible to go from very bad to pretty good.I went from mild to moderate which is where I am at now. RA does go into remission so you can bounce around. I'm on mtx and predisone and my understanding from my rheumy is that he wants me to try the biologics so that is next. If that will give me more energy, I'm all for it. Better yet, my knees seem to be yelling at me a lot lately so I won't mind if they'll shut up also. It is kind of hard to carry around a heating pad all day, especially at work.My rheumy bases it on how persistent the inflammation is. He calls my ra aggressive because I always have some inflammation. That is his criteria.I'm like many others here, having experienced much improvement through successful treatment. I have severe Still's but moderate RA; before I found the right drug combination, I was terribly ill. The Still's in general left me critically ill because of the organ involvement, and RA-wise I was in so much pain and my joints so swollen that I couldn't sit up in bed, never mind stand or walk. My joints were deteriorating fast and I had a few surgeries but I've gone from that to what I am now. I might whinge and I don't feel great every day but I'm thankful I'm doing better rather than worse.
Moonie