Question (s)!

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I'm still catching up on the e-mails I missed over the weekend so will

follow up on those soon. I haven't had a checkup with my Rheumy for a while

but am having a flare so going to see her on Wednesday, you know how it's a

stress to cover everything you want in the visit! It's just that I've been

having some strange symptoms lately and don't know if they are really her

domain or if it would be better to speak to my usual/general doctor about

them. (It's a bit long - sorry, but it's hard to explain these kind of

things).

Firstly I started getting a kind of rash thing (about 3 months ago). It

started as one little sort of bumpy patch of dry, light pink/light brown

skin about the size of my thumb nail. It wasn't' itchy or sore or anything

but started getting bigger and got a little bit scaly. I went to the

dermatologist to have a mole removed and showed him, he said he wasn't sure

and that it could be a fungus or something else, gave me Pevisone cream to

put on it and told me to call him if it got worse. The cream cleared that

patch up but then I started getting more on other parts of my body, nowhere

specific and very sporadic (not lots - some are as small as my pinky finger

nail, some a big bigger) but mainly arms, legs and buttocks. They don't

bother me at all and I have to see them to know they are there, only some

get bigger and sometimes they all go away on their own for a while then

start coming back. But I've been reading here about how we should mention

rashes but don't know if this is really the kind to mention so wondered if

anyone else has had anything like this?

The second thing is I've been having sharp pains in between my ribs/my

lungs??? not sure which, front and back and sometimes - rarely - a really

sharp pain when I breath (feels like inside my ribs by my heart) Sometimes

at the bottom of my ribcage/lungs?? there's a persistent uncomfortable pain.

My back ribs are also really sore in the mornings, feels like someone's

been breaking them at night, bit like stiff joints when I have a flare.

Anyone know what this could be, could it be RA related? Last thing is I've

been having shortness of breath (this might be an anxiety thing caused by

the Decapepyl I'm on but I'm mentioning it anyway since all this rib/lung

pain? just might have something to do with it.

I've been Prednisone (for the last year and a bit), Celebrex (when I'm

flaring) and Decapeptyl (hormone treatment for Endometriosis - injections

once a month for 6 months - put you into a kind of chemical menopause).

Just so many meds for different doctors I don't know whether to speak to my

GP, my Gynae or my Rheumy!

Hope someone can shed some light on at least one of the above, I don't want

to seem like a hypochondriac when I go and see the Rheumy so am in two minds

of whether to bring all this up plus all the other gripes that come with a

flare! I know you will all know how I feel.

Thanks for listening and sorry it's such a long e-mail!

Hugs,

Heidi

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