Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...

2,179 Members

16,355 Posts

0 Online

deanma 03/21/2015

i have been off my RA meds for six weeks so that i could have surgery.
I am now four weeks since and am supposed to go back on them. My RA has been so quiet during this. I am tempted not to take my RA meds for a while. However, am i then at risk of joint damage? because the RA is progressive and not indicative from pain levels. ? Any advice? if i do go back on the plaquenil and methotrexate, i will not take a biologic if i can help it. This all hinges on the hope that it wont continue to do damage to my joints... ect... M

depotblue 03/21/2015

sometimes the meds kick around in your system longer than you think - i don't understand half lives and all that, where the hell is buddha cat these days? oh yeah he had major surgery also. well are you now a remicaide user? doesn't that hang around like forever in your system?

sometimes any kind of major type surgery kicsk your auto immune system favorably and puts it in idle so you aint getting a true reading you know?

sometimes pain killers for surgery can mask stuff no, especially if you were not previously taking the same type and amount?

when is the last time you had a baseline and a follow up of a MRI of any joint?:

feel better good luck at being on the other side of it

depot

altoclef 03/21/2015

Good question for your rheumy

Depot hits the salient points on what might be happening. There are people here, I think bcatz is one, who were on a biologic for a while, had great results, went off it and continued to feel well for a long period.

Cheerfully 03/23/2015

I completely understand how you are feeling. I had surgery and have been off my mtx for 6 weeks. I don't want to go back on it either. I've felt really good although I'm really tired. I can't figure out if that is my RA or the recovery process. I did resume my plaquenil after 2 weeks. I see my rheumy later this week and will be asking many of the questions you asked. I want to hold off taking my meds as long as I can - as long as I'm not doing major damage to my joints. I was told to resume my mtx after 2 weeks but that felt too soon so I didn't. I will see what my rheumy says I hope you get your answers and you continue to feel good.

cassie2u2 03/23/2015

I will be having surgery on both eyes very shortly..will see specialist tomorrow so will see what he has to say about the mtx...that is all I am on..no pain meds of any kind..they all raised heck with my eyes so i stopped them on my own and then told r.a. doc. I have been off mtx before for surgery , sometimes I can't wait to get back on it and other times I just wait until I have a flare to go back on it.

lynnedavidson3 03/24/2015

I had back surgery about five years ago. I also had RA at the time, but didn't know it yet. I think the shock to my body of having surgery somehow turned off the RA, temporarily. When it returned, it was awful! Really horrible, painful and totally debilitating. It took a very long time to get RA under control once I was dianosed. I have had some smaller surgeries since, and have not stopped taking my RA meds. My docs made it very clear that uncontrolled RA is more dangerous than than the risk of infection, for me. Major surgery requires stopping RA meds. I would get back on my meds as soon as I could, I don't like big, nasty flares. Even though my RA meds are working great, the diease is still progressing. Please consider resuming your RA meds, you want to do everything possible to stop or slow down the damage caused by this nasty diease.
Lynne

Join the Conversation