Welcome, Jeanine!

[Guest guest]

Welcome to the group, Jeanine! I'm sorry that you have RA, but I'm glad

Debs steered you and your sister our way.

I'm happy to see that you've jumped right in and made yourself at home

here. And it's great that your RA is being well-controlled at the

moment. Hope it stays that way!

[ ] RE:Arava

> Joanne,

> I was diagnosed with RA in APril 2001 when I went to the dr

complaining of

> severe joint pain and weakness in my hands. I work at a school and do

lunch

> room duty (LOL), but found that I coulden't open a simple bag of

potato

> chips. My RA factor was 160, and I was getting worse by the day.

> We started with Doxycycline and corticoseroid shots, that lasted about

2

> months until the dr realized that I had deteriated considerably while

the

> cortizone was masking the symptoms. I got to the point where I

couldn't wash

> my hair, walk, write, UGHHHHHHHHH!

> We moved on to Methotrexate. That made me nauseous and caused

migranes, but

> relieved most of my symptoms. The dr added the antidote to the MTX

while he

> put me on the waiting list for Enbrel. We used low doses of

prednisone off

> and on while I continued this regimine until Oct 2001.

> At that time, we added the Enbrel. I was doing great within about 6

weeks,

> then I asked to remove the MTX and started downhill again. In Jan,

2002 we

> added Arava to the mix, and within a month, I was doing great. We

decided

> to try just using the Arava, and I downhill I went again! We added

the

> Enbrel back in, and I have doing great ever since. No prednisone, no

shots,

> nothing. Of course, we added Fibromyalgia and Sjrogren's to my list

of woes

> once the RA settled down and we could pick out the other symptoms, but

the

> RA continues to behave itself for now.

> Hope this helps, both with your Arava question, and with the info

gathering.

>

> Jeanine Kinsey