I saw my lung doctor yesterday since I have been in a flare this week. He reviewed my last blood work up and said my allergies are horific.. I never had allergies before or asthma. He said it's hard to tell which came first RA or the allergies. Has anyone had this experience? also. I am on 20mg. of pred again, plus arava and enbrel..should I still be in a flare and having so much joint pain?
This is my experience with asthma and ra. When my ra came on....then about 5 months later or so I developed asthma. Some people say asthma is auto immune and some say no it isn't. I have the belief it is auto immune since well...my doc said it was after someone here told me it was. I did ask him about it after I was told that.
Ok your flare. Oh hunny I am just so sorry you are hurting so badly and not getting any better. Flares are so weird. How long has the flare been going on? How long have you been on the arava and enbrel? What is your arava dose? How long back on 20mg of the pred? I can only tell you what I have experienced. I can be in total horrible pain and confined to the couch from a flare even when being on my meds. It does happen. Let me know what the answers are to those questions and I might have more answers for you.
I sure hope that you get to feeling better soon tho. I really know andunderstand what you are going thru and will help in any way I can.
I have been on Arava and Enbrel for 12 months now. I have been on Pred for 15 months. I have gone from 40mg. down to 2.5. When I got down to 2.5 pred. I had a terrible flare. I was out of it for 5 weeks to the point that I had to use a power chair to get around. I woke up one morning and it was just gone! I felt good for two weeks. I walked a mile in the arthritis walk on May 12th. I was down to 7.5mg. of pred. On Monday May 21st while driving to work the flare hit me again. I do love my job so it was not that I did'nt want to go, LOL. My Rheumy and lung specialist put me back up to 20mg. of Pred and I am still on that dose. I do apprecaite your time, I wish you well, Rain