Good Morning everyone.... I have had a question since I saw my RD this week. What is considered remission? Is it when you feel good, not much stiffness in the morning, no flares and able to go back to normal activity? or is it based on your blood levels? I told my doc that I am feeling great (today I can wiggle my toes for the first time in 2 months
Yesterday, I actually washed my Westie and my Cairn for the first time in two months (stinky) and I got brave and actually clipped them and groomed them myself.... I was a little tired the rest of the day but it really felt great and they looked sooo cute!!!
What a great question, something I have pondered about myself.
Since I just came off my 3-month check after my 1-year date of diagnosis and the start of treatment, my blood was perfect, and I mean PERFECT. So, does the MD consider that remission? Stabilization?
I had previously sent him two faxes over a two-appointment period of time asking "when do I call you for an emergency", and this time he asked "what is with this rheumatic emergency" you keep asking about? I answered that I wanted to know what consititutes an "emergency" in his book, when do I call him in-between three month periods? I have symptom changes everyday, and can usually ride them out over maybe three days, then it waxes, then it moves to something else I ride out.
He replied that if my own personal baselines within my body suddenly change and feel completely different, to call, and he would prescribe a six-day blister pack of steroids, that is typically what they do to get you through an exacerbation of symptoms. Everything else, infections, whatever, take to your primary. I also asked whats a flare, and he never addressed that in any real fashion.
So my husband and I made a deal and these are our own personal baselines for a trip to the ER: bleeding, vomiting or fever. LOL The rest of the time from now on, its either ride it out or call for steroids. The trips of the past to the ER are over because usually after the 6-8 hour wait to get to a doctor, my terrible symptoms have flared out and passed. I just didn't yet have a dx and was in terrible shape.
I frankly don't believe there is such a thing as remission, or "it just goes away". I think we have periods of feeling good like you said you had, then we get bad again, then it burns out, then it flares again. But thats all just IMHO. Great question.
Cathy...6-8 hour wait at the ER?? Oh man. At the ER here, they give you free movie tickets if you have to wait more than 30 minutes.
I'm glad you brouth this Q up, Sparky. I've wondered about that myself.
Linda
http://arthritis.about.com/od/arthqa/f/remission.htmBuckeye...well, that answers that! ThanksI read a post once from someone that said they fit the description of total remission, but the erosions still progressed. I also met another girl who was overseas. All her tests were normal so she was told she was just depressed. When she came back to the states her doctor ran a bone scan and found she had erosions everywhere.
One thing I've learned on my short journey so far is that everyone is different. The day they drew blood for my first set of tests I felt fine yet all my tests were high. It's been three years and for the last five months, I've done nothing but flare and my inflammatory markers hover from normal to slightly above normal by a point or two. Go figure.
Linncn - 6-8 hour waits to see an ER doctor is the norm down here during Season, and the equipment is usually broken. I am ecstatic with only 4-6 hours in the waiting room, that's a good trip. And the link on remission, it reminds me of the stats, if you fit this box, you are in remission. Right.
Wow...what a wait!! Altho I have read that the average ER visit is about 4 hours.
We live in a small town with a hospital on the other end of our street. I was in with Danny this past week and was in and out in 2.5 hours. I can't imagine a 4-6 hour wait to see a doc when you are in pain. Even when I went in for my flare that got way out of control I was in my room on the floor within 3.5 hours.
Gramma...How is your husband feeling? He had some crazy flu, right?
Cathy..do you like living in an area that draws a lot of tourists? Do you have an influx of "snowbirds" during the winter?
I think you're in 'clinical' remission if your numbers are in the normal range. I think they count the meds in that scenario.
My definition is:
No meds of any kind. None of the stuff on that list at all. Not a niggle. Not a twinge. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Anything else is just wishful thinking.
Pip
Linncn - moving from Alaska to the fastest growing part of the country (well, Las Vegas doesn't count), was a shock. The health care system collapsed under the strain (its in the news). During Season with snowbirds, add in all the Cuban and Haitian boat refugees, and this place was a receipe for a health care disaster. The one hospital held off competitition for years through politics and money, but two new hospitals have recently opened, so hopefully, some of the strain is going to come off, but it was like a frigging third-world country using the hospitals here the past few years. I don't mind the tourists, but the stupidity of allowing all these huge developments to open up, pouring in millions of people, then start building the roads, schools, and hospitals to support the populace has been absurd. Locals learn all the back road shortcuts and avoid the tourist traps. Then in summer, like last night, you can go downtown and get into a restaurant without a 1-2 hour wait. I do love living here, despite it being a backwards Southern state, totally corrupt. Come visit, Naples is a secret. :)Apparently I have never been in remission.
I have some days that are better than others but by that standard from Buckeye. nope never.
OTOH our hospital is 6 blocks away. It's a nice little village hospital (70 beds) with an excellent ER. I have lived here 23 years and have never waited longer than 15 minutes to be seen by anyone.
I have never experienced even a bit of remission, but I am up for the challenge!Okay Im sorry to sound dumb but... what is a westie and a cairn???????? I have been in remission before. It is not that you no longer have RA. It's more that it is under control via meds or the therapy you have chosen to do or like me when I moved to AZ and that climate really helped me. However, I am no longer in remission. It was about 18 months after moving back to the midwest that I went out of remission. But that is the ups and downs of RA, eh. But remission is a goal I keep fighting for! Even with the way my hands are now I still keep the faith and keep on hoping it will come one day.Hi Tara.. here is a Westie and Cairn... they are terriers (my husband lovingly refers to them as "terrors") They are my two little dogs and best cuddlers in the world!!!
Cute!!!! yeah ummm they look like a handful lol!!!I have never obtained remission as far as I am concerned because I still have a lot of swelling and a lot of pain but most of my labs come back relatively ok.
As far as the ER goes, its nothing to wait 6-8 hours here. Unless I am projectile vomiting or losing blood at an alarming rate, I don't bother anymore.
[QUOTE=Shelly41]I have never experienced even a bit of remission, but I am up for the challenge![/QUOTE]
Shelly, I am up for the challenge too - Remission Now! Think of the great bumper stickers, confuse the world.