Re: Re: New to RA and Starting Plaquenil/Kathy

February 2, 2004

Hi Kathe,

I'm new to this group and have been reading through the posts. After reading

your letter I know exactly what you meant. I was diagnosed 2 years by my

regular doctor who treated me with Celebrex. That worked up until a year ago

November. Since then the joint pain and fatigue haven't gotten any better. I

have

now started seeing a specialist but of course he wants to check everything out

before he changes any of the meds. Right now I'm on Methotraxate (6 pills a

week) and the folic acid. I was on Effexor XR for a little while but, gained

about 12 pounds and couldn't stand the weight gain. It did help dealing with the

RA but I was beginning to think the weight gain was causing the pain to get

worse. So now, I'm not taking anything like that.

As far as this totally taking control of your live, I know that has mine.

Even though I ty to keep doing the things I use to, I just can't. I use to love

to do counted cross stitch pictures and haven't been able to do them for almost

a year. Even when I'm feeling good, I keep thinking that by doing things like

that, it's going to flare it up again. I was also the one around here who did

all the decorating and fixing of things and gardening. I love doing all those

things and it's the hardest thing to realize that I can't do things when I

want to any more. They have to be done when I'm feeling up to it.

I'm 46 and have two children. A daughter who just turned 22 and just opened

her business in November and a son who is 19. I think it's even harder for them

to understand this, because they are so use to " mom " being there and doing

the things that needed to be done. My daughter had ideas that I would be there

to help her whenever she needed me, which I would love to do but can't. She

opened a copy center and some of the jobs require folding or stapling and I

can't

do it. Getting the store together required a lot of work and I did what I had

to even with the pain because I wanted to do it for her. In my family, they

see me doing certain things and assume that there's really nothing wrong with

me. Even something as simple as letting the dog out, just having to get up and

walk to the kitchen is sometimes the hardest thing I have to do, but they just

ignore her and it's easier for me to get up and do it then to keep calling

them. My husband is the same way. I just can't make them understand that I

didn't ask for this and I hate having to depend on other people to do things for

me.

Now I'm waiting to go back to the specialist in 6 weeks and see what he's

going to say. He put me on Prednisone 5mg daily until I see him and that's it.

It

hasn't made much difference at all. I can't believe how bad it's been for the

last month and I know it could get a lot worse. I just keep telling the

doctors that I know they can't make it go away but just make me feel like I did

a

year ago.

Thanks so much for your letter it does make it a little easier to handle.

Take Care

in IL

February 3, 2004

i know how you feel i use to lift weights to keep in shape and now i can't. i

have to ask my wife to open bottles for me. you just don't know how embarrasing

that is. and when i try to do some stuff around the house like fix something i

usally get mad . and then she thinks i'm mad at her. and i tell her i'm not mad

at her i'm mad at myself because it's hard to do it... when you go from bench

pressing 200 lbs. to can't even open a bottle that's VERY UPSETTING TO ME.

thanks for hearing me out . i know i'm not the only one who has this problem.

mike

elmo826@... wrote:Hi Kathe,