Rheumatoid Arthritis

[Guest guest]

hi all..well for those of you that know me, I just wanted to give

everyone update. As you know, my wife has had RA for the past 12

months. Shes 29 and started taking remicade in March. The Remicade

was helping a lot with a combination with Methotrexate and Folic

Acid. She received her last infusion in Oct03 and at that time, she

went in a week early because she was hurting and they also increased

the dossage from 3mg/k to 5mg/k. 2 weeks after the infusion, she

was still hurting and it looks like her body is building antibodies

against the Remicade. Also, 3-4 months ago, she started getting

rashes the size of a quarter on her back, behind the ears and now on

the side of her face and chest. We have found that was being

caused my the Remicade and theres only like 8 cases of this reported

and when its reported, they report it in dermatology reports not

rheumtology reports.

Now its back to the drawing boards because shes on 17mg methotrexate,

folic acid, and steriods - prendisone (10mg per day)..she just

started plaqunil and that takes like 3 months before it's going to

work. She does massages bi monthly to help and is going to try

acupuncture next week. She has full blown RA and wanted to see if

anyone else that has it has found anything that works.

If anyone has any ideas or thoughts, please let me know..i dont want

her to take the 10mg of prendisone beacuse of the long term

effects. Not to sure about the plaqunil, but heard some good and

bad. Also, any ideas on other treatments would help. I've

heard a lot about the food book, but cant get my wife to belive in

it because she never hurts after eating any particular food. It's

sad to say, but they TNF agents are the best thing on the market and

without her able to take them, i'm scared that life might be really

hard in the future months/years.

Thanks