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Francis's Story

rozario@dataproindia.com 

In Jan 96 I was 43 and was planning to take Voluntary Retirement from the Indian Army to work in the Private Sector. I was nagged by constant fatigue, pain in the knees and ankles and 'smoke' in the eyes those days but had never heard of RA and its symptoms. I hung up my uniform and soon thereafter I was practically bedridden with swollen knees, ankles, wrists and fingers. And that is when I was introduced to the term RA.

Hereditary, it may be, because my mother also complains of the same symptoms. Occupational hazards, also possible. Because during my active service in the Army I served in all possible extreme climatic conditions. Also I was very active in sports - football, basketball, squash and tennis.

Anyway, the doctors made one thing clear. There was no cure for RA. I had to live with it. We in India give great weightage to Homoeopathy and Ayurvedic treatments. I gave them also a fair try after the Allopathic doctors managed to control the disease through indomethacin, methotrexate etc. But Alternate medicines were of no use.

The doctor who prescribed indomethacin (Indocap SR) had said that I could reduce the intake from three per day (in the initial days) to one or two in a week. This doctor passed away in '97 and I did not go to any other doctor after that. I continued to take the capsules on my own and over the last four years have brought the consumption down to one in a week. I manage to get the capsules over the counter, thanks to lax implementation of rules by druggists in India.

I have no reason to exult over the self medication. In fact I am constantly worried what will befall me as side effects of the drug. I do some simple exercises to keep the joints moving. There is very little pain and I am able to do all my daily routines without problems. Mobility of joints such as knees and wrists is only 10% less compared to my sporting days.

During the worst times (early 96), the doctor had told me to avoid red meat and wines. I followed his advice in toto then. Now I indulge in red meat off and on. I dont drink rum or the other types of wines, but take about 60 to 80 ml of whisky every alternate day. So even in matters of food I am not tied down by the disease.
Can you tell me what side effects I should expect for the unsupervised intake of indomethacin capsules, once or twice in a week, over the last four years. I feel quite healthy, except for a chronic cold and occassional cough.

Lt. Col. Francis Rozario (Retd)