my gp diagnosed me with a throat infection and gave me a Ketek pack. I have a rheumy appointment Friday - will the antibiotic interfere with a correct measurement of my sed rate? I have been on Plaquenil for 8 weeks and have been flaring for over a week now. I do not want my sed rate to be low because of the antibiotic if the Plaquenil is not working.
Thanks for any advice...hugs.. He will probaby take the throat infection into consideration with how you are doing overall. If you are having infections, they know you are not doing good no matter what your blood work says. You need to be really clear on how RA is affecting you in spite of the throat infection. How much are you hurting? Where are you swelling? Things like that. Let him know you've been in a flare. He may want to add something besides Plaquenil, but not until you are finished with the antibiotic. It doesn't seem like Plaquenil, by itself is doing the job. You might want to ask how he is thinking about treating you next. Thank you for your replies and advice. I guess I am still working on the trust thing with my rheumy. It took quite awhile to get a diagnosis (since last December), and I do not want to get backwards! This stuff is starting to interfere/prevent me from doing my regular activities - like work! My doc is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky and I know that several people travel 2-3 hours to see him. I think I just need quit feeling like a whiner and tell him how bad this time has been.
I know you guys understand...many hugs... Jeanne is so right about the blood test and the doctor. Any doctor worth his grain in salt knows better than to base everything on blood test. You should try not to put too much stock in the blood test either. Best of luck to you.....hope things even out for you soon. Welcome to AI.
If you have a Rheumy that ONLY looks at sed rates and doesn't "take care of the whole patient" then you need a new Rheumy. I don't know the answer to your question but suspect that ABs COULD lower a sed rate since infections cause an immune response but I don't know specifically how much it is affected.
Just go in and tell him how you have been feeling. He will understand the results if he knows you are on ABs and the sed rate is lower than it should be for the symptoms you have.
I have learned to trust my Rheumy but it was hard for me at first, but he is the one with 35 years of experience. So far, he has not been wrong once.
Jeanne
Well, I had the same fears in June. I had my first real flare, and my doctor was sending me for blood tests and x-rays for when I go see a speicalist. While waiting for my bloods tests to be done, nearly a month had passed and all that time I was on Celebrex. I was scared that my test results would should show normal results and I wouldn't get any help at all from anyone. But they didn't. Even though my swelling had gone down, and I was a full month on medication for pain and swelling, my sed rates and c-reactive protiens were very high. I think they know what you are taking too and know how it can affect your test results.
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