Hi, I'm Aisling a 21 year old girl (woman?) from Ireland.
I'm new here and want to get the opinions of others.
I've had arthritis for 10 years now, since it started there was always the distant hope that maybe since it started so young it may have been juvenile and maybe I wouldn't have it into adulthood.
But here I am anyway, my little buddy arthur still in tow at the grand old age I am now.
I'm currently on Humira, Methotrexate and Naprosyn.
About 3/4 years ago the arthritis seemed to go into remission so I was taken off all medication, it came back in full force about 6 months later so I went back on them and have been since.
The current mix works well (after a lot of mixing and matching, mishaps and plain old disasters) and I feel pretty well so long as I take the medication regularly, don't drink too much, and steer clear of certain foods.
Here's the thing though, all that was grand and cool except I always thought that (especially with my being quite young, and considering all the side effects I've already experienced, and god knows what's in store), maybe one day I could stop taking meds altogether, and maybe combine exercise and diet or find a more natural medicinal approach. (I mean pumping this many chemicals into ones body can't be good in the long term, right?)
Having finished college recently I thought this would be my opportunity (in the interim between school and work life) to find something new.
So...
I moved to China there two months ago and took a six month supply of all my medication, the thing is, I want to travel, or at least have the freedom to be a bit more footloose, so I figured... when in China...
Has anyone experienced Chinese Medicine?
Do you combine Eastern and Western Medicine?
Would you or would you not recommend that I give it a go while I'm here? (I don't have very much Chinese, and since I'm pretty central in the Mainland, it's quite hard to find any English speaking officials, and the hinese friends I do have don't have the greatest English, or don't want to talk to a doctor with me in case they can't get the point across accurately)
I've heard it's supposed to be very effective for RA, but I'm kinda just looking for others opinions or their shared experiences.
Sorry about the length of the post.
But thanks for reading.
(I looked through the older posts and didn't see any similar ones in the last five pages, so I'm sorry if I'm harping on about a topic that's been done to death)
Aisling
I have no experience or knowledge of the medicine you are speaking of but I wanted to say welcome.
I myself feel more comfortable with the traditional DMARDS because like you experienced- going off once for an infection I flared and when I got back on so far I have not attained the comfort level I was at before. If I were you and had a real interest in trying something alternative - I would speak to my doctor and see how they feel about it. Maybe they coould do a little medical research into it for you. Best of luck in whatever you choose. My sister-in-law is from China. She and her family moved to Canada when she was a young girl. A few years ago her father was diagnosed with cancer (i believe it was in the throat area) The doctors here said they had done all that they could. Family back in China suggested he come back and try some of their medicines. Well, a year later he came back home and his doctors here were astonished. They could no longer find any cancer. He's not had a problem since.