RE: Suggest Doctor - South East

[Guest guest]

I’m a few years older than your mother and I’ve had

RA for about 7 years. The most important thing for her is to see a

board-certified rheumatologist because few other doctors are really qualified

to diagnose or treat RA. Pain management is important but it is also

important to slow or stop joint damage. Once the joints are damaged I’m

not aware of anything that will help so early and aggressive treatment is important.

We often buy time for effective medication to work by using a corticosteroid

such as Prednisone. This only does little to slow joint damage but it is

usually quite effective is helping with pain. It also has some bad side

effects, especially if taken at high dose for a long time. The most

common medication to treat RA is Methotrexate, either orally or by

injection. This is usually accompanied with Folic Acid because the

Methotrexate destroys some Folic Acid that is needed for proper nutrition.

This usually comes in 2.5 mg pills and is taken once a week, with from 1 to 10

pills in each dose. They usually start out with about 3 pills and once the

body adapts to that, they increase the dose till it works. Unfortunately

it can take a few months to see how effective it is. I’m sorry your

mother has this, but early and aggressive treatment should make things a

lot better for her. God bless.

From: Rheumatoid Arthritis

[mailto:Rheumatoid Arthritis ] On Behalf Of momnbuttons

Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 8:37 AM

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Subject: Suggest Doctor - South East

Hi everyone,

I joined the group in the hope of some help for my Mother. She has

rheumatoid arthritis and we have tried several doctors. They just

seem to pass her on to another. She is 78 years old and in terrible

pain. We live in North Alabama. Should anyone have an excellent

doctor they can recommend that is willing to help her with pain

management, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks,

Connie

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[Guest guest]

Dear Connie- go to www.arthritisfoundation.org and find your local chapter office. They can give you names of doctors and start you on the referral process as well as support. Be well, Deborah

On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 11:37 AM, momnbuttons <momnbuttons@...> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I joined the group in the hope of some help for my Mother. She has

rheumatoid arthritis and we have tried several doctors. They just

seem to pass her on to another. She is 78 years old and in terrible

pain. We live in North Alabama. Should anyone have an excellent

doctor they can recommend that is willing to help her with pain

management, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks,

Connie