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...
My rheumatologist has me on Celebrex and Tramadol-as-needed. We chose Celebrex only because I'd taken it in pre-RA days and found it somewhat helpful and had no side effects. The Tramadol is for bad days. I don't take it often. I have not felt that the inflammation was under control, but there was an improvement, at least.
I also do MTX and Humira. They're working. But I haven't been completely happy with the control of pain and inflammation from the Celebrex and Tramadol.
I saw my family doctor today for an annual physical. He told me that he, personally, has recently switched from Celebrex to Zorvolex, and it has been so effective at reducing inflammation that he no longer takes any pain meds (not RA, but chronic pain and inflammation, so he's pretty understanding of my situation right now.) He told me that he has been prescribing it for many of his patients and 29 out of 30 reported significant improvement. Five more hadn't yet gotten back to him with their results.
He said if I look it up it will say it's an NSAID for mild to moderate pain and that won't sound like it would put a dent in my inflammation, but he's found it to be extremely effective.
Now, this next part is so over the top that if it were written into a script a director would take it out because it's overkill. While I was still in the exam room, his nurse popped her head in and said "Mr X just called and he wants to switch to the Zorvolex". While in the hallway checking out, someone came in to the other window and said "You gave me a trial of Zorvolex last week, and the difference is amazing, I'd like to get a scrip for it." And the receptionist, who also has RA, said it's been a game changer for her. I mean, it was starting to seem like I'd been thrown into the worst-produced commercial ever. I was execting to hear a theme song at any minute.
So I got the scrip filled. (And of course will discontinue the Celebrex while I try it out.) I am interested to see how this plays out. I checked my most reliable measurement of inflammation - touching my thumb and pinkie on my left hand. Through this whole ordeal, that's been my best indicator if my inflammation level. So hopefully I have something objective to use as a comparison, because good heavens, that was a lot of not-so-subliminal grooming going on before I filled the prescription!
Anyone have any experience with this med?
But when you are already on that journey of trying to find the right regimen of medications (DMARDS and biologics that is), it is reasonable to do other things to help you along the way. In a similar way that we have adjunctive therapies, braces, cold packs, hot packs, PT, OT, yoga and meditation, etc, etc, etc, we also sometimes need additional medications to help reduce the pain, or flares. Many talk of needing steroids, or taking celebrex daily, or even needing narcotics. Finding a helper NSAID or some other anti-inflammatory can help while waiting for the big guns to do their thing. We often don't notice dramatic changes with those DMARDS and biologics -- but relief of pain so we can do some things we need or wish to do is immensely important.
I am glad you have found something to help with your symptoms, and know you and your rheum are still working towards treating your RA.
When I posted midway through this thread that I felt defensive, I made it clear that I wasn't quite sure why, and I posted immediately after that I wanted to retract any tone of annoyance from what I'd written. My post wasn't impulsive. I put thought into how to word it. I was genuinely frustrated with what seems like a common occurrence here - having to defend my doctor's / my choices over and over again.
From additional responses to my post, both here and privately, it seems other people have felt this way at times too. Sure, maybe we're all over-sensitive snowflakes. Maybe we're being irrational chickens. You (plural; this is not directed at any individual) can certainly dismiss our reaction and say 'no, this didn't happen, you're wrong." But what's the end goal here? If it's actually support, maybe there's a different approach that would work better.
I'm not particularly concerned for myself here. I've recently reached a point where I am finally learning that when someone's making me feel uncomfortable, AND I examine it carefully and make sure to the best of my ability that I'm not misunderstanding or overreacting, that it's okay to say hey, can we dial this back a little bit please?
But we're going to have people posting here who are in significant pain emotionally and physically, and this will not be the last time that someone, perhaps someone with a much thinner skin than mine, feels defensive. Words matter, and I think they matter doubly to people who are at a low point. I don't think 'support' means nothing but cheerleading and exclamation points and huggy emoticons. I think there's definitely a place for probing questions. But sensitivity to tone can go a long way toward making people feel comfortable enough to stay here. Isn't that what we want to happen?