Hi all. Last month, I was diagnosed of having RA. Other than using a pain reliever, can you please suggest a practice or exercise that will help me with the pain? I need to do something about this. Thanks.
Are you taking any medications to modify your RA? Do you and your physician have a plan to bring your disease into control and then into remission?
Many people find enhanced quality of life with dietary changes and a personalized exercise routine; sometimes pain is alleviated with warm or cold therapy, or a combination of both; sometimes morning stiffness is lessened by using joint splints, pillows, and blankets to support the extremities and position joints...however, before undertaking any practice of exercise I suggest you first discuss it with your rheumatologist.
Best wishes.
Shug is absolutely right... find a good Rheumatologist and get to work on that disease. As we all know, early and aggressive treatment is your best chance for remission.
I am very sorry for your diagnosis but there is so much you can do... be very proactive and do loads of research, this is a good place to start.
Good luck to you and keep asking questions!
Pain is definitely the earliest, most noticeable aspect of RA. But stopping disease progression is more important and, in so doing, should alleviate a lot of the pain.
You and your Dr should be discussing DMARDS (Disease modyifying antirheumatic drugs). These are drugs like methotrexate, plaquenil, Enbrel, Remicade. The sooner your on one (or a combination) the better you'll be.I agree with the others. It's what I did with my doctor. In my case, I just take tramadol for the pain relief and am yet to talk to him about the exercises that I can do. By the way, if you're not taking tramadol, try asking your doctor about it. Me an my friends who all have RA found it to be the best pain reliever so far. Once prescribed, you can buy tramadol almost on any pharmacy out there. Like what they said here, there's a lot that we can still do and so we can still enjoy each day even with RA. Have a great day!
hello homesickagain and loveoffreedom....
elminating pain is not the most important thing you do in battling RA... You need to stop progression quickly....otherwise suffer the deformaties of the joints