Howdy again y'all~
Thanks so much for the help on my last post! I thought of another question that I was hoping y'all could help with. My rheumie keeps saying remission is the goal, and that I was in remission as of February, but no longer am. I'm a bit confused: even when I was deemed in remission, I still had stiffness and occasional mild swelling. Now, I guess the stiffness and swelling have increased a bit from what it was, but not all that greatly.
So, my question is, what is meant by remission, or what can be expected from being in remission?
Thanks again! I'm glad I found this forum...I really don't know anyone else with RA, so its great to have people to talk to.
Hi, i could be wrong but i think remission, means the stuff is being stopped by the medication, not increasing throughout your body or continuing to attack you? It sounds like it is back at it again...love sarah
I tend to think that your doctor decided you were in remission because it didn't show in your blood work where it did before. Do you think that's the way it is? I have a problem with that theroy because there are many, many , many of us here that have had RA for years and are what is referred to as sero-negative. It doesn't show in our blood work; but we have numerous symptoms including joint damage on x-rays. So to me you can't call it remission just by the blood work.
Remission to me would mean that there is no signs of the disease and you would be able to manage without any prescription medication.
I've heard someone term it as a clinical remission which means that the patient would be able to get to a point that they had no RA symptoms; but they had to stay on a certain amount of medication to keep it that way. Once the medication was stopped they returned to the same condition.
As Lovie said remission is when all of your labs are negative and don't show active RA. You could be in remission and still have some joint pain and swelling, which is due to damage that's been done prior. Damage pain is with you always, remission or no remission. It lessens when you're in remission because the damaged area isn't being irritated by inflammation and leaking synovial fluids.
There are 2 types of remission, total remission with no med usage and clinical remission when drugs are still required but labs are negative for RA. At this point I'll take any ole remission, doesn't matter.
I hope that you continue getting better.
Remission is RA is basicly that you are on a drug and it is working for you. For a remission they hope to have you on the least amount of drug doses and that your pain and inflammation will be gone then.
There is also remission without drugs, but with a disease like tihs that has no cure, that is unfortunately extremely extremely times a million rare. If it does happen, you are a very lucky and a miricle might have happened.
But, there are tons and tons and tons of medications. I am a very rare person who gets toxicity from just about every drug that enters my system but there is only about 1% population with inflammatory disorders like that.
Most people can find the right medications and then pain killer for the pain caused by damage etc.
It si possible so always keep your hopes up and remember, it takes an average 2 years to find the right medication doses and have them start working, some drugs don't start working for up to 6 months for some.
Here are the definitions of remission from the American College of Rheumatology.
When you go into your rd office for an appt. they give you a sheet to fill out called a Disease Activity Sheet (DAS). That helps them determine if you are in remission...how close you might be to remission....if you need a change in treatment regimen...how you are doing in general with the ra...and it helps to get insurance pay for your meds. This is a very important sheet to fill out.
I wish more docs would not focus so much on blood work and look at the big picture of everything.
ok how many of you have ever been in remission? and for how long? lets consider grammys definition. oh how i would love not to have fatigue,or pain! Also,if you went into this remission,how long after the start of your meds did it happen?
kel
Yes, I have been in remission and it was remission with no meds. I was in remission for ohhhh a good 5.5 years. However, I contribute that to the climate I was in. It was a hot dry climate. We moved to AZ in the winter from IL. About 6 months after we were in AZ I went into remission. I remained in a drug free remission about 1 year after moving back to the midwest (WI). I didn't get slammed right away when I came out of it. I had very mild symptoms and started on mtx and humira right away to keep the progression at a minimum. It wasn't until Oct of '06 that my RA went nutso. I was the lovely recipeint of pneumonia and had to go off my meds. Then it was a roller coaster of on and off all fall and winter with my meds and the ra just went wonky. It has since calmed down and I am getting strength back slowly but surely since I am steady on my meds. I hope to one day be back in remission whether it is med free or with meds. If I go by this chart from the ACR, I would guess I am about 4-6 months away from remission (makes kids cross their fingers and knock on wood lol) with the rate I am progressing at doing better. I started with 15mg of mtx in pill form and then changed it to injectable (.6ml) and went to .8ml (20mg in pill form). Humira continues to be the same at every other week. I do pred at 5mg (now doing a taper from 25 to 5 after being in the hospital for a flare) and hope to get off that ASAP. I also do 2mg of folic acid daily. I do feel that if I don't get sick and can stay on my meds continually I will hit what the ACR considers remission. I would love to not have the morning stiffness!!! I hate that!!!
Here's another question for those that have been in remission or currently are in remission. Does your brain fog go away? I can't remember if mine did or not! Stupid brain fog! Or do you think that is a result of the meds that we take for the RA?
Have you ever tried gluten free diet... it seems to help me... I seemed to be in remission while on enbrel.. but now having this closing of the throat feeling:(... and now it will be like starting over with another medication.. I am scared..