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...

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Rheumy Visit

ReeDee43
ReeDee43
I saw my rheumy yesterday after 3 weeks of Arava. I've been on Humira since September and according to my bloodwork I'm doing well. My esr went from 75 to 67, iron looks good, etc. However, I seem to be feeling more joint pain. I thought I saw a post regarding good bloodwork and joint pain. He did say he wants me to give both meds another month to really work. I'm being patient but I'm not willing to give certain meds too much time after my MTX fiasco. He examined me and made a comment like- "The disease is still active." As if I didn't know. I hope this is my final go around. So far, I failed the first DMARD MTX-replaced with Arava-and Humira is my first biologic. I pray for a happy and somewhat "no ankle pain" 2012
ncgranny62
ncgranny62
My last visit with my rheumy, he told me my inflammation numbers were in the "normal range." I've been on MTX since August 2010 and Remicade since July 2011. I'm still having pain in my joints. I've still got major swelling in ankles, feet, and lower legs. Now I have petechiae and PCP has me on prednisone for that. I'm sure my rheumy will have something to say about that since he doesn't like prednisone. Well, I don't like it either but when you have petechiae rash all over your body, you have to do something and that's the opinion of my PCP (who is a fabulous physician).

Sometimes, those lab numbers just do not gel with what is going on within our RA bodies. Maybe there are some RA markers they don't know about and need to discover. Didn't someone post not long ago about a new discovery about "bouncers in RA?"

I hope and pray they find something to help us all soon.

Hugs and I wish you pain-free ankles in 2012. Forgive my long rant. I think I have "roid rage" today. Lol.
sandi7213
sandi7213
It took me about 5 treatments of remicade before i could tell the difference. I think some of the other meds were getting in the way. plus the red back fired on me and caused increase swelling in lower legs/ankles.

so now that i stopped all the others, the remicade is a life saver. I told her I have pain and stiffness 2 weeks before my next infusion and this time it was 3. so were increasing my infusions to every 5 weeks.

so give yourself time, when they throw to many meds at you, its hard to know whats working and whats not. and sometimes the good ones can just take longer. You don't want to give up and then find that it would of helped

I hope this works out for you