Muscle Relaxer? | Arthritis Information

Hi...along with the pain, stiffness and overall tireness from RA, my muscles are starting to ache does anyone else have this problem? I noticed many of you take muscle relaxers....does this help?

My name is Rochelle and I live in Arkansas...I have been married for 30 years and have 2 sons. I was diagnosed with RA when I was 45...I am now 49. I no longer have health insurance since my husband lost his job 2 years ago....no insurance company will insure me since I take MTX. I am hoping this forum can help answer my questions and give support, advice, info and a hugs every once in a while!

I look forward to hearing from you......hope you all can enjoy your Thanksgiving and find something in your life to be thankful for...Blessings to you!
Cowbells, You might have fibromyalgia. It is another auto-immune disease that many with RA get. Muscle aches is a major symptom of fibro. There is no cure. I am SO sorry you do not have insurance. My greatest fear. Gentle exercise is good for fibro, like swimming. So sorry you are feeling yukky

Welcome to the board. You will find a lot of great support and very caring people here.

Sounds Like Fibrmyalgia, Tenderness of the Muscles, and ache all over. You may need to go to the Web Sites for the Meds you need and ask for assistance from the Drug Manufacturer directly. Mostly if you cannot get samples from the Doctor, ask them to help you fill out forms for assistance with Drug porgrams they are out there!

I hope this helps, and if it is Fibromyalgia, use HEAT as Cold seems to make it worse, lite exercise, and take it easy. Listen to your body and adhere to your limitations.

I have Fibro and use Flexeril (which has a generic) for the muscle pain and spasms. I take 1/2 a pill at night and find it very helpful.

Take care,

My MIL takes Flexeril at night sometimes (she has fibro....), she says it helps her. I've taken it for various things, but it just makes me buggy.

Anyway....what I wanted to say, is the generic for Flexeril is on Wal-Mart's prescription list. (so, if you don't have insurance...this may help you out some). If you are anti-walmart, Target is price matching them as well. (shoot, my Albertson's is price matching too now!!!)

*hugs* Aren't all these aches and pains a blast??

Thanks so much for the help, my mom has fibro....but hasn't complained of back aches, hers is in her shoulders mainly.

Yes, being without insurance is a nightmare...and yes I have applied for help from everywhere we can think of anf have been turned down over and over again. I do use patient assistant programs as well as Walmart's 4.00 generics (Which is wonderful!)

Thanks for all the kind replies and I look forward to hearing for you again...hope you all had a great Thanksgivng!

Hugs and prayers for you!
Cowbells

I have a lot of achyness with the RA and I have muscle relaxers for that as well as the slipped disk in my neck. I have Skelaxin (no generic available yet), Norflex (onadasterone), and Flexeril (cyclobenzaprine). They all work about the same but if I had to choose one I would go with the Flexeril. It seems to work just a hair better than the others for me. I rotate them every few days with the hopes of not building up a tolerance for any of them since I have been on them for about 3 or 4 years already. I did at one time take Soma which doesnt work as well unless you take 2 which completely gorks you out if you manage to stay awake. To me the idea of taking pain pills and muscle relaxers is to be able to enjoy your life instead of being in misery. If I am knocked out or in a fog the whole day it isnt worth it to me...(severe problems excluded of course). So, any of the top 3 drugs would work well but the Skelaxin would be much more expensive since there is no generic yet. Good luck, hope this helps....and sorry if the generics on the other 2 are mis-spelled...but you can look them up for the correct spellings.

I use muscle relaxers on a reuglar basis for back problems. They do seem to help me.

I've had RA for more than 12 years now and have been taking Humira for two years now. This medication, along with MTX has helped me dramatically. However there's no way I could be on these medications without insurance because my medications alone would cost more than 00 a month! That's not including the doctor visits, regular labs, MRI's, X-rays and other specilist I've had to see over the years. I certainly understand the uninsured delima; but move heaven and earth to try and secure Health Care over the next few years. RA is a progressive disease and as it progresses it becomes more and more expensive.

Best of luck to you. I hope we see more of you here.

Lovie

Lovie! Have I been asleep or have you not been around as much???? O.o It could just be me. I space sometimes. How're you?Have you tried Unicare? They were the only ones that would take my dad with his hypertension. Some may take you but not cover your RA for the first year or so.

Even if you have a waiting period it will be well worth it. I spent many years in the milder stages myself and didn't need nearly as strong of medication as I do now. It's only been in about the last 4 years that it's progressed to the point where the expense could have been a real burden.

I'm doing well Kate. Thanks for asking.....just been busy. Haven't had much time to keep up lately. Hope you're doing well. Happy Holidays.

Hey Lovie!

I agree though...anything is better than nothing!

Hey Crunch!

Insurance is really expensive....but having a chronic illness like RA has tault me the value of it for sure!

I have never in my entire life not had insurance..and maybe I wouldnt be so intimidated by the idea of not having it except I have had a very sick child, and I have worked so much with the population of people that are uninsured through the ER. I see how long they have to wait, and sometimes the way they are treated...and for the really sick ones...the hospital is always looking for a way to transfer them or hurryup and ship them out. I dont drive with out a seatbelt, I dont go to bed at night without locking up the house, and I dont go for one minute without medical insurance. It would be the one minute of my life that I would need it...with my kinda luck!

My ex-husband always thought health insurance was a waist of money. This past spring he had a massive heart attach at 37!

He had to have emergency surgery to save his life and spent 4 days in intensive care.

Lesson learned?

I bet he's thinking "Looks like she was right" now. I feel real bad for him. He needs continuous follow up care and a lot of medication. The doctors aren't very nice to him when he tries to go to the doctor. They know they aren't likely to get paid....so not many people want to take him. It's a sad situation.

Not really the type of situation where I want to say "I told you so." But.....just between us; I told him so.

It's not easy for everyone to keep insurance. I was covered by the military (through my dad) until I was 21. I was living with my b/f(not Justin) and working for wal-mart at the time, and insurance was beyond unfordable. I made .25 and hour and insurance would have every week. You do the math. And thats before thinking about the co-pays for each visit. Then I got hired back on at the daycare, which was a non-profit organization. I was getting paid .75 an hour and insurance would have been every two weeks (before co-pays) but at this point, I was living on my own. .75 barely covered the bills! When I got hired onto the hotel I made an hour and insurance was once again around something every 2 weeks....however my car had died and I had to get a new one, and had taken on payments. UGH. Then Justin moved down and we tried to get everything sorted and get insurance, and he got sick....it's been a financial battle ever since, and at this point even WITH insurance, his Crohn's and my RA will not be treated for ONE YEAR. A whole year of payments to some money hungry company before they'll even let us see someone. It Sucks. :|
Yes...I can see how it could be a problem...especially with both of yall having chronic illnesses. My husband worked at some really tough jobs to make the kind of money to where we could afford insurance. I dont think he could have done the stuff that he did in his early 20s if he would have had something like chrones. Once I started working as a nurse I carried the insurance untill he went to work for Halliburton. The company they used was way better than the one that I had to pick so he started to carry the insurance again and I went to do agency work. No benefits but a /hr pay raise. Of course now I dont work at all so once again the money is tight. He has experience under his belt and makes good money...but we have 2 kids to worry about too now. It is never simple I guess. But I can see how it is more difficult if you start out young and already with a chronic illness.When my husband lost his job 2 years ago, finding a company to cover me became impossible. They will not touch me with RA and while taking mtx....last year I had to have an emergency gall bladder surgery and it has devastated us...almost ,000.00 for an over night stay.

I can get high-rish insurance but it is over 500.00 and there is just no way we can afford that.

Be thankful you have insurance...you can lose it as easily as I did.

It's so sad....but so true.

My insurance falls right under my family of the things I'm grateful for.

Sad huh? LIfe shouldn't be this way.