Can't say that I am happy about the way it went. I brought in the usual list of symptoms and meds and the treatments the pain clinic (that she recommended) is doing. She took more x-rays of my hands and although there is a LOT of soft tissue swelling, there hasn't been any increase in bone damage.
Basically, she says as far as the ra is concerned, there is nothing more she can do. She says my symptoms are from the fibro, adrenal exhaustion, neuropathy and stress.
I was crying hysterically and even asked her to put me in the hospital than so i can be not so stressed and get the help I need and she said she couldn't do that.
She did give me a shot in my wrist, I assume some sort of steroid. She told me to stay at the 3.5mg of prednisone and not to decrease any farther. She said if I am still as bad off in three months when I see her again, she would suggest I go back on the mtx. She didn't want me to do that now because I was already on it for 4 months and it didn't help and according to my blood, things look good. She said it sometimes helps with swelling but couldn't even say it would help me or not.
She said I should see this shrink she knows who deals with chronically ill patients. I called the new shrink and left her a message asking her to call me. I have no objections to it but all my problems just can not be from me being stressed.
She told me that most of my pain was probably fibro and she doesn't treat that but the pain clinic I am going to does. She also agreed that fibro would not be causing the swelling I have or the ostiopenia that shows up in my x-rays.
As i was sobbing and begging her to do something, she said there really isn't anything else she can do. She said she didn't think it was all in my head but that as far as the ra is concerned, it is under control.
Of course my hubby backed out at the last minute and did not go with me even though he promised he would. I am supposed to call my internist to talk about my 301 cholesterol level and call a urologist to talk about my bladder pain. I forget the big long word she used but I have read about it, its basically an inflammation of the bladder. My eyes are flaring so she even got to see the redness from the uveitis and my hands and feet are good and swollen as well. She just keeps saying its not from the ra.
I feel hopeless and alone.
Michele I am so sorry. My rheumy also said that the RA/PA are under control based on x-rays and blood work and I said then why am I in so much pain and he answered that arthritis is very painful. He also said that under control is not remission. My PCP takes care of my pain control which helps but I live in a lot of pain every day.
So are you taking nothing for the RA?
Michele- I am really sorry to hear your appointment didnt go well. Your husband really has to see that you need his support on this, its important to you and your needs. Stress can cause so many things and i definetly see a difference in myself and the way i feel when i am stressed out. I think seeing a shrink is a good idea, they deal with chronic illness depression and if you get a good one then its a good step in realising a lot of things.
Take care and kick that hubbys butt
But clearly that's not going to address all the swelling you've got (and osteopenia...I'm not familliar with that). Can you get a second opinion? Or have you already been down that road? And are you taking anything for the fibro and neuropathy (NSAID, muscle relaxant, anti-neuropathy like Lyrica)?
Michele, you are very overwhelmed right now and you have every right toI'm real sorry to hear what a difficult time you are having. It's a real shame that your husband couldn't find it in his busy schedule to support you today; sure does sound like you needed him today of all days. I'm sorry to say that's shameful. Especially now that I see he doesn't even have a job. Sure does make me grateful for my precious husband. My husband would drop everything to be by my side if I needed him. If I was in your shape he'd insist on being with me when i say the doctor. Your husband should really be ashamed!
I hope that things will soon improve for you Michelle. Don't give up....brighter days are ahead.
Michele, I have a question. How do you feel today, compared to how you feltMichele,
Please hang on - you can get this under control. You sound like I did at all my meetings with these docs - and I was lucky in that I had my husband there because all I could do is cry.
Hugs.
Pip
I printed out what you wrote for your meds and symptoms and going to sit down and look it over and like Lorster start looking up interactions etc. and see what I can find. Also going to look up symptoms and see if any of them are from taking all those meds. Whew that is quite a list. Gimme a little time. Maybe Lorster and I can put our heads together and figure something out. This is just utterly ridiculous that they can't figure this out. I almost want to say it partly has to be these meds the have you on. I'm almost wondering if a weaning and detoxing is in order for you. Clean out your body from all these dang chemicals that keep getting put it into it.
I loves yas muchly Michelle. I know you hear hang in there all the time, but please do. Give me a few hours to research and look stuff over.
Thank you girls.I hope I didn't insult you by saying that about your husband Michelle. I'm just so upset for you. After the argument you had with him last week I thought for sure he'd show his support by being there for you today. I'm sure my disappointment does not even come close to yours and I'm sorry if my comments added to any stress you are dealing with today.
Sounds as if he's pulling in a pretty good income despite his lay off. Be grateful for that. Sure could be a lot worse.
Lorster...I went down the list and looked everything up lol. But it will be interesting to compare notes. I have everything in Word right now and going to give a brief summary here of what I found. Otherwise this post will be very very long lol. Ok here goes.
Well...after a little research and note taking and comparing this is what I feel is going on. A lot of these meds that you are on Michele is causing a lot of your symptoms and masking what the real problem is that is going on. Most like FM and RA. Personally, I would get my butt off of most of what you are on and for sure change your anti depressant (the cymbalta) because it is obviously not working since you are having suicidal thoughts.
The spironolactone and the xanax cause repressed sex drive. The spironolactone is often used to treat severe male sexual disorders. Not just as a steroid beta blocker.
The oxycontin can cause excessive sweating, amnesia, ringing in the ears, painful urination, and blood in the urine. It also may block what the muscle relaxers are supposed to do for you. It can also interfere with what the xanax helps you with.
Xanax causes repressed sex drive and can also interfere with your yeast infection medication.
Zanaflex can cause unusual thoughts or behavior, painful urination, sweating, numbness, tingling, and affect birth control pills. I didn’t see anything on what it does to birth control pills, but I would imagine lower the efficacy of them.
Previcid is a real nasty med. I just don’t like this one at all. It can cause arthritis!!! Also the overgrowth of yeast in the gastrointestinal tract!!! HELLLOOOO!!!!! Also tachycardia (rapid heartbeat), flu like symptoms, amnesia, sweating, retinal problems, dry eyes, not getting a restful sleep, sweating, and UTI.
Ambien can cause repressed sex drive, headache, flu like symptoms, and once again tachycardia.
Maybe I wasn’t too far off that this is just too many chemicals floating around in your blood stream. Heck how many of them cause the same kind of side effects? The fertility treatments have to be tied into this somehow causing something in your immune system to go wonky. Doing fertility treatments is a stressful time in life and there has been studies that say a stressful event in life and then getting some type of infection causes our immune systems to totally turn against us and viola the RA. Then they start testing and doing this and doing that and saying maybe it is this or maybe it is that because the dang docs are so afraid of malpractice they do not want to dx wrong and before you know it, whammo, you are on so many meds you are more messed up than you were to begin with. I really really think you need to start weaning off of some of this stuff they have you on. It is making you more miserable than helping you. And you are on meds that are possibly interacting with other ones. What a mess!!!
Can this pain management doc do a detox? And then start all over and get treated for RA only? I swear Michele, you have the RA and fibro and think that is all. All these meds…ugh…2 of them could be causing your suicidal thoughts! And sheesh no wonder why you have no sex drive!! Your meds are repressing it!! And not just one med either!!! Personally, I feel these docs and their behavior towards you has contributed to you having to use xanax etc. We gotta come up with something to get you better! Some kind of plan of action to approach the docs with.
I have gotten into trouble with being on too many scripts at one time. The pharmacist said that none of them were contra indicated with each other but it was an awful lot for some one who's weight is 115.(yup it was a while ago). I will never know for sure but I think paxil (anti depressant/anti anx mixed with 5mg of pred for 6 month flipped my lid.
I got off the pred and changed anti depressants and was not only sane again but actually felt happy sometimes. Sex life slowly came back - took more than a year.
I hope your internal med doc will help you get rid of some of this stuff.
michele get the results and ranges for all your thyroid tests and post them on one the thyroid boards. About.com has a very active well informed hypo board. So many people are told they are "normal" when their thyroid numbers are not optimized but just because the numbers are normal for the range they may not be the best for you. There is some controversy over the TSH ranges so if you are at the high end you very well can by hypo and still test "normal" Thyroid disease can be difficult to diagnose when you are not typical
Please go visit them and let them take a look. It can't hurt
Paxil is known to flip lids in people. It is a hit and miss kind of thing. Marian, you are great example of changing meds and getting off of something to feel better. I hope that encourages Michele to do the same thing.
I am on a grip of meds but both docs checks for any interactions. I had to be placed on a specific anti depressant (which I am no longer on thank goodness that is 1 med gone lol) so that it did not interfere with my hypertension meds which I really need or I am at stroke level. Bleargh. It just amazes me that docs keep shoving more and more meds into us and don't even think that they could mask the real problem or cause side effects that could be both medically and emotionally devastating to us.
Just want to butt in and say don't stop taking Cymbalta suddenly. Antidepressants should generally be tapered on and off, and your dr may want to replace with something else. I know the general idea is to get off as many meds as possible, but stopping the Cymbalta and possibly increasing the suicidal thoughts would be a very bad thing.Michele, I'm still working on the list. When you see your internist nextShe is on a grip of stuff she has to wean off of. Can't stop a majority of these meds without weaning. Especially ANY anti-depressant. I still can't help but wonder if all these meds, their side effects, and their interactions together is causing all this.
Hurry up Lorster! LOL!! No really dahlin take your time so we get the right info.
Night at all. Heading to bed after watching Jarhead with Danny. Very nice eye candy in that movie lol.
My heart and prayers go out to Michele, I'm in the same boat as you are but it's the prescipts. that drive me out of my mind, especially when all I look at my husband as he shakes his head, he is blessed that he only takes l baby apsirin a day. He sailed through prostrate, thankfully with no meds at all...Don't feel bad about your emotional health as it is becoming a more prominent problem which the doctors must admit. I've developed servere itching over my arms and top of my hand swelled right up on the top, given antibiotics, they shake their heads....but I am still off pred after 18 mos use now off since Jan. 2/07..........taking acupunture, massage therapy, tylenol arthritis, along with b/p meds, water pill, prozac, cholores. staten. and the best is the Ativan that makes me more sane. Hope you get some answers to pass on the the 100s of others suffering with this.
Again remembering you in my prayers, and the hubby must feel so helpless, mine does and he is my best friend/phsycartist (sP) ..
rose
Ok girls, sorry to be mia yesterday, had a rotten day. Thank you all so much for taking the time to help me sort through all this!
Michele, I'm so sorry to hear that you're going through a rough patch. You're on quite a mixture of meds so it's not surprising that there might be some adverse reactions. I certainly know what that's like. I'm taking Gabapentin for neuropathic pain and with the various other meds I'm on something was making me feel dizzy, disoriented, and really exhausted every day. It turns out that Relafen, an anti-inflammatory I was taking for RA, exacerbated the side effects of the Gabapentin. I'm glad that Gramma and Lorster are checking out your meds. You'll be armed with solid info to share with your drs. Hopefully you can whittle down that list and only be taking what you need to deal with the RA and Fibro pain.
You asked if there's anything to take other than Prevacid. I'm taking Pantaloc for Acid Relfux. It works well for me... my usual dose is 1/day. Sometimes if I've had too much caffeine or gassy foods, I'll need a second dose.
Wishing you all the best
Punkie