Hi everyone.
I have been lurking for a few days and decided to join today...
On Friday of last week I was RE diagnosed with RA....seronegative.
About 12 years ago I started getting extremely sore, stiff and achy.. especially in the hands and feet. Walking became difficult and using my hands became more and more challenging. After the usual barrage of testing by the family dr, she sent me off to a rheumatologist as my ESR levels were quite high and she couldnt find an obvious cause. After more tests the rheumy diagnoses psoriatic arthritis, and started me on treatment... and eventually put me on methrotrexate in tablet form, I can't remember how much. Sometimes he said I had RA, sometimes PA... all I knew was I was feeling mightly unwell and in difficulties. The MX made me very very ill... and after a year of perservering and not getting the pain levels down much or the ESR's dropping below about 50 (under 20 is the "normal" amount here in Australia... not sure if everyone uses the same measures etc) I slowly went off the mx and tried to cope with it all. The dr gave me a very scary prognisis, that I would be crippled and wheelchair bound by 35.. at the time I wasnt quite 30 and had 3 young sons.
About 2 years or so after that I started feeling ALOT better.. the pain subsided to the occasional flare... which was wonderful.. I thought I had "it" beaten. I was reassessed by another rheumatologist 5 years ago who was happy that there was not too much damage and the arthritis was in remission. I had another child... all was well.
THEN the begining of this year I started getting pain back in my feet. Like walking on cut glass. My hands were getting hot and stiff and achey. I would wake every half hour if I was sleeping as I hurt. I went to the podiatrist.. after looking at xrays she diagnosed achilles tendinopathy... and told my family dr to send me on the a rheumatolgist. The family dr did some blood work... found my ESR's were back up over 70... other inflammation tags elevated.. so I was booked into the specialist. When I finally got to see her, she ended up diagnosing fibromyalgia and RA. At the monmet she has me taking 7.5 mg Prednisone and Endep to help with the sleeping.. and in 10 days I start on the Arava.
To be honest.. at the moment I feel scared... I had such a horrible time with methotrexate that I am afraid of what the Arava will do... and putting my family through that. I am not sure how to explain to my daughter.. she is only 6 when she sees her mum so sick. Thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive husband who does all he can.
Well.. that is probably enough from me :)
Thanks everyone for being here.
Hi, sorry to hear about this and understand what you are going through. When RA hit me about a year ago and before I knew what it was, the only way I could explain it was to say that "it feels like I am walking barefoot on sharp rocks".
Dear Megan, what a terrible shock to you that you thought this was all gone!, I'm so sorry to hear it is back. I thought I'd licked my RA and was down to 5mgs of mtx , and no other medication at all, until an operation in Dec. sent my RA through the roof, so now I'm needing so much more medication, more extreme types, but you know what I think it is 'working' for me! That's half the battle.
I do hope yu don't get too down with this stuff coming back at you and your little ones will understand you will get better. The new drugs are so much of a help. lv sarah
MTX makes we lethargic for days, but I had absolutely no side effects whatsoever with Arava. Good Luck.
PJ
Justwishing...welcome to AI. That is such a bummer that the RA came back so hard. Thereare a lot of wonderful people here with tons of info and experience. Keep us informed of how your doing. Welcome to the board!!! So sorry about your experiences!! You have found a great place for support and lots of caring people!!!Hi justwishing, and welcome to us!!Thanks everyone :)
Thankfully the pred has kicked in and I am definately not as sore and stiff... and the swelling has gone down somewhat. I tried to explain it to a friend as " I can hobble now instead of crawl." Unfortunately I seem to have got a throat infection thing... no voice.. my kids love it! so back to the family dr today!
Does everyone have to be put on MTX??