Can I go Geocaching tommorrow? I feeel pretty strong and good now. Should I take the chance or not?
Ra flares and then it doesn't flare. The pattern can occur with or without medication..but not flaring doesn't mean that the disease isn't active its just not causing acute symptomsThanks buckeye. Gues not to be so blissful and stayhome..don't push it. Darn it! But thank you so much!I have no idea what geocashing is; but I believe enjoy what you can when you can. Don't sit on the side lines and watch everyone else enjoy life becasuse you're afraid you won't feel good afterwards. Yes; it's true that some activites will casue us to have a bad day or two....but so often it's worth it.
Don't waist time on the sidelines.
Well, when I lived in AZ I was in a meds free remission for about 5 years. It was awesome. I did have occassional flares if I really overdid it or it was monsoon season. During monsoon season I would just get a script for the pain if I needed it. Otherwise I did ok. Maybe slept a little bit more.
Remission with and without meds is totally possible. I have a 13 year old in remission right now.
Yes I have been in remission 2 times without medication in Calif. The first time I went into remission for 6 yrs. (diet and exercise) shortly after I was diagnosed with it. The second time the RA came back I was in pain like I had never felt in my life for 3 years. I took MTX but couldn't tolerate it at all. At that time I read a story about James Coburn and his relief from RA with MSM. I ordered the kind he was taking and after 1 bottle went into complete remission for another 6 years. And when I say remission, I mean no pain whatsoever. I was back to wearing high heels (after being on a cane), I could be out in the rain and cold and not feel anything. Now it's back and I live in VA where it is more humid and I've been out of remission going on 3 years now. I'm more stiff this time than in constant pain like before. My knees are involved this time around. Each time I come out of remisson the RA is different than before. I just hope I'll be able to go in remission again one day but this time I have joint damage.Med-free remission for over 2 years with nothing but fish oil and occasional naproxen. Stopped taking the fish oil; had the mother of all flares several weeks later.
James Coburn.. Have you seen his hands? he was very deformed from the disease... maybe he felt better on MSM.. IDK, he died of a heart attack.. and so, did it actually prevent progression of the disease? he never said there was documented evidence of retarding progression???Very interesting topic.....I am on NOTHING for my RA at this time. I went off all meds when I was having some lung issues to rule out lung problems as a s/e of the RA meds.
Interestingly enough, I don't feel much worse off everything than I did on everything. I am scared that I'm doing damage to my joints I can't see. I don't know what "remission" is technically. How would we know if we don't know if we are still damaging our joints?
I'm confused. I just know that I feel about the same or a little worse than with all those meds.
PhatsIf you have a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and none of the other subsets of arthritis, it's rare to go into spontaneous remission. If the diagnosis is mild to moderate then I think you could possibly fall into that small percentage that reach remission w/o drugs. Remember, remission's definition (spontaneous or clinical) is: No inflammation or synovial fluid on xray or MRI of joints, no pain, no swelling, less than 15 minutes of stiffness in the mornings, and completely normal RF, Sed rate, and CRP. Unless you have those documented it's not considered remission. Just because you feel great doesn't mean you're in remission, you have to have all of the above criteria. I thought I was in remission for 5 years and then had a sudden, extreme flare that left me bedridden. It's taken me 5 years to find a combination of drugs to reach clinical remission due to the severity of the disease. It's possible but rare. Lindy
[QUOTE=LinB]If you have a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis and none of the other subsets of arthritis, it's rare to go into spontaneous remission. If the diagnosis is mild to moderate then I think you could possibly fall into that small percentage that reach remission w/o drugs. Remember, remission's definition (spontaneous or clinical) is: No inflammation or synovial fluid on xray or MRI of joints, no pain, no swelling, less than 15 minutes of stiffness in the mornings, and completely normal RF, Sed rate, and CRP. Unless you have those documented it's not considered remission. Just because you feel great doesn't mean you're in remission, you have to have all of the above criteria. I thought I was in remission for 5 years and then had a sudden, extreme flare that left me bedridden. It's taken me 5 years to find a combination of drugs to reach clinical remission due to the severity of the disease. It's possible but rare. Lindy
[/QUOTE]
Yep - documented.
[QUOTE=babs10]James Coburn.. Have you seen his hands? he was very deformed from the disease... maybe he felt better on MSM.. IDK, he died of a heart attack.. and so, did it actually prevent progression of the disease? he never said there was documented evidence of retarding progression???[/QUOTE]
Yes he has passed away now. But even then his hands were very deformed after battling years with RA. He said he had tried every medication possible with no good results until he had found this doctor (I don't know his name now) who introduced him to this form of MSM. He started taking it and went into complete remission and was a spokesman for their product. I ordered it and it worked miracles for me in no time I was in remission. I am a big believer in prayer and I think God brought that info to me.
Also at that time I had no stiffness or anything. When I told my RD he examined me and said "you are in remission, but it will be back." I hated him for telling me that but he was right.
Copyright ArthritisInsight.com