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...
I'd been having topical reactions at the injection site for my weekly methotrexate. The pharmacist was no help at all, and seemed a bit put out by even being asked (but that's another story). Had my three month checkup and Stelara injection today and asked my rheumatologist, and she'd switching me to a preservative-free version, thinking that perhaps that's the ingredient that's causing the issue. So perhaps I'll have an answer in a week or so. i'd hate to drop the MTX when it's working so well.
And just a general FYI, I was more pro-active than usual at the appointment and brought up some issues which I doubt are directly related to the RA, although they're probably exacerbated by it: a sore elbow and an achy hip. The latter's been xrayed a few times and I did a few rounds of PT for it long before my RA diagnosis. The elbow thing, I was fairly certain, was simply an overuse injury. I prefaced telling her about it by saying that I realized it might be a family-doctor issue and not relevant in the moment, but I thought I'd at least mention it.
She agreed that neither was probably specific RA damage, but then she printed out some exercises for stretching the iliotibial band which I know is a problem with my hip, and suggested I pick up a brace for my elbow like tennis players sometimes wear, to use when I'm doing any lifting. Now, the exercises are ones I already know, but my point here is that she was willing to take up some extra time to address two concerns that probably aren't really in her domain exactly, on a day when an emergency (burst water main briefly closing the building earlier) was already making her office run behind schedule.
I feel that you sort of save your specialist for the things in which they specialize, do you know what I mean? and thus have hesitated to bring up anything that seems like it could be dealt with by my regular GP. And I only mentioned the aches becuase I thought it might be RA related. So it was nice to have her take the extra time to give me some suggestions at least. And now I know that I shouldn't hesitate in the future.
Here's hoping the preservative free version of the RA works; I have entire constellations of rough red marks on my belly from the other kind. (I've been deliberately trying to line them up, and had Orion and Ursa Minor so far.) It's not like I'm gong to be rocking a bikini at any point anyway, but it would sure be nice not to have a connect-the-dot belly.
I also came across some of my late father's medical records. He was a hot mess, with many many issues, but most prevalent was the post-polio complications. His polio itself was a fairly classic case of contracting the disease in 1925 after exposure, but his late-in-life symptoms seemed really extreme even given the severity of his case. Somewhere around the mid sixties, when he was in his mid forties, things just started going downhill for him. Well, in the margins of a paper from one of his medical visits in the sixties, a doctor had scribbled "rule out rheumatism?" I have no idea if there was followup to that, because many pages of his records are missing, and if so, what kind of treatment would have even been available. I suspect his concurrent heart and lung issues and many many other meds might have limited some treatment options. I have strong memories of the amount of pain he was in, and I remember that he had very limited mobility in his hands; he could not tie shoes or do buttons. I always assumed this was related to the polio, and now, I wonder if he had undiagnosed RA as well. He had good medical care for the time, but there were fewer options in the 60's, and of course his obvious polio issues sort of took up all the oxygen in the room sometimes, and perhaps no one really looked further.
Ultimately there's not much point thinking about it, except that the possible hereditary factor, or at least possible tendency towards an autoimmune thing, has always been on my mind in re my kids and grands. And, of course, I'm still healing my relationship with my father even now, thirty five years posthumously, and being able to understand the pain he was in certainly makes understanding his anger and depression easier.