I'VE HEARD A NUMBER OF PEOPLE SAY THAT THEIR RA WENT INTO REMISSION. DOES THIS MEAN THAT YOU ARE TOTALLY FREE OF ANY PAIN,STIFFNESS OR OTHER RA SYMPTOMS??
I'VE HAD RA FOR ABOUT 2 YEARS NOW AND I'M ON PAQUINIL AND METHOTREXATE. PRIOR TO TAKING THESE MEDS, I COULDN'T CLOSE MY HANDS INTO A FIST AND HAD PROBLEMS WALKING,ESPECIALLY WALKING DOWN STAIRS.
AFTER TAKING THE MEDS FOR THE TWO YEARS I CAN WALK AND GO UP AND DOWN STAIRS WITHOUT PROBLEM. I DO HAVE SOME MINOR STIFFNES IN MY HANDS IN THE MORNING, BUT THAT'S GONE AS SOON AS I'M UP AND ABOUT AND USING MY HANDS.
WOULD ANY OF YOU CONSIDER THIS A FORM OF REMISSION??
I'M SEEING THE RA DOC IN A WEEK AND I'M GOING TO CHECK WITH HIM. HOPE HE DOESN'T LAUGH TOO HARD LOL
THANKS AND PAIN FREE DAYS TO ALL OF YOU.
DON
Donn, I'm new to all of this, so don't have any answers. Good luck at your doctor visit. I am telling myself that my RA will be in remission in a week or so and I'll be symptom free :) love, juliahDonn; I am not sure this is considered a remission, the dr may say that the meds are doing it's job. Sounds silly, but go to the library and look up a couple books and do some reading you might be able to find more on remission or use a search engine on the web and see what is the definitionof remission for arthritis. memeSounds like mine when it was in remission. But you're right in talking to the doctor about it. And yes, research it. One thing the doctor did was take me off all of my meds. After 18 months of remission, it's back with a vengeance. I'm thinking I should have continued with some of my meds to keep it in remission. So keep that in mind if your doctor thinks you don't need the meds anymore. I also have a friend who went into remission, and stayed there for almost 5 years. After having a baby, it has returned. She was only taking Aleve while in remission. It's different for everyone.
Cris
Don,
I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. That's not to sound negative...but the medication you're on is working. Enjoy that while you can...and don't do anything crazy like come off your medication. I've learned from experience that just because you are feeling better doesn't mean you are.
Like Cris was saying; given time it will all come back and it could even be worse. I know the medication can be expensive and agrevating to take and keep up with but it's a part of your life now. I went through a spell where I thought I was "cured". My RD warned me not to stop the medication. It would come back with in months and it would take us a lot longer to get it under control.
Well I'm a little stubborn and thought I knew best. I hate it when some one says "I told you so".
Stick with the program. If you are feeling better consider it a blessing and a product of a good doctor.
Take it from someone who's been right where you are. Truth is; we have a disease that won't go away. I don't mean to sound negative...just realistic. Fact is I'm a very positive person...I've just learned to acccept the things I can not change and do everything in my power to make the most of it. That's taking my medication and staying ahead of this thing so I can continue to lead a normal (ok; almost normal) productive life.
Do your research. You don't want to make the wrong move at this point. You are still at a very early stage in your disease.
Glad to hear that the meds are working for ya. It encourages me to know that someone is having "good days"....I know one day some "good days" will come to me again.
Same thing happened to me. It's been 5 years since I was diagnosed with RA. My disease was under control relatively quickly. As all of you know, the quantity of different kinds of drugs start to accumulate as the disease continues to grow. I did get to the point where I was completely living pain free! I knew at that time as well that there isn't a "cure" for RA, but I heard alot of talk about homeopathy drugs. Since I was feeling great I thought I would give it a try. What a mistake I made! The Homepathic doctor told me that I had to go off all my RA doc prescribed drugs to try the homeopathic drugs. When I intially went off my meds I felt competely fine for a month while taking the new homeopathic ones. The RA indeed came back with a vengence! I wish I had not gone off my meds. I still have not been able to go back to felling the way I did when I was living pain free while on my RA doc prescribed drugs. My RA disease progressed quite a lot while I was off my drugs for a total of only 4 months! I just wish I had known about this forum when I decided to go off my drugs. I could've gotten other's input in the matter...well I did learn that in the future I definately won't be making that mistake again. :)I think remission is defined as lack of disease activity, but there can still be pain etc during remission. my docs considered me in remission when i was a teen, but said even if the remission was permanent, i'd still have pain and sitffness due to damage that had been done by the ra when it was active. i was off of meds. but that was against medical advise.
HELLO AND THANKS TO ALL FOR YOUR FEEDBACK. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE WAY TO GO IS TO STAY ON THE MEDS AS PRESCRIBED.
DON