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've had relatively good response from MTX & Plaquenil to the point that I wasn't feeling any pain or stiffness. With the okay from my Rheumy I wanted to tapper everything down. So I went from 15mg of MTX to 12.5 & so on until I reached 5mg & then with Plaquenil I went from 200mg twice a day to 200 once a day to 200 mg every other day & I eventually stopped it.
Was doing fine for about a month. During this time I started to work out, lost 20 pounds. Concentrating on strength training & a little muscle building to change my physique a bit. So I'm lifting relatively heavy at least for my weight, shape & size.
About 2 weeks ago I started having pain in my clavicle shoulder area yet I could never put my finger on which one it was? Sometimes it felt like the shoulder other times it felt like the clavicle.
Then little twinges here and there in my right thumb, then my left wrist.
I'm almost 80% certain it's coming back slowly but what about weather? Maybe I'm just hoping that it's something else. So I started the Plaquenil again, doing 200mg once a day until I feel something.
Has anyone gone through a relapse after feeling like it was in remission? Is it common. I've felt great for the past year & responded very well when first diagnosed.
Not sure which way this is going or if I'm being sensitive due to cold weather lately or if I'm just denying the a possible truth?
Was doing fine for about a month. During this time I started to work out, lost 20 pounds. Concentrating on strength training & a little muscle building to change my physique a bit. So I'm lifting relatively heavy at least for my weight, shape & size.
About 2 weeks ago I started having pain in my clavicle shoulder area yet I could never put my finger on which one it was? Sometimes it felt like the shoulder other times it felt like the clavicle.
Then little twinges here and there in my right thumb, then my left wrist.
I'm almost 80% certain it's coming back slowly but what about weather? Maybe I'm just hoping that it's something else. So I started the Plaquenil again, doing 200mg once a day until I feel something.
Has anyone gone through a relapse after feeling like it was in remission? Is it common. I've felt great for the past year & responded very well when first diagnosed.
Not sure which way this is going or if I'm being sensitive due to cold weather lately or if I'm just denying the a possible truth?
Lynne
You were actually on a fairly low dose of methotrexate. I'd say you are going to have to re-up the drugs then after 4-6 months if you are fortunate to have them work again and want to reduce, reduce just one of the drugs by just a small amount like lower the methotrexate by 1 pill per week and wait two months to see if it was enough.
There isn't anything wrong with what you did, and it's great to get along with less. Hopefully you have caught this in time and can get it stabilized without going to a higher dose.
Great job on the weight and strength training! That will serve you well.