Re: RA Pam

[Guest guest]

Pam:

Welcome to the group - the people here have taught me

so much, and they are so open, caring and supportive.

Well, it should be pretty evident by now that your

juicing is unfortunately not working. There is no way

to treat RA than to use medication - that is the truth

of it.

With the use of DMARDs, which are disease modifying

medications, we can try and control the disease

process, try to control the deformities and

limitations that you have unfortunately already begun

to experienced. The pain you are experiencing and the

deformities that have been experiencing are a result

of that. The deformities you have now, I think will

always be there, but the pain you are having can be

made worse, and you can control to a great degree that

you may not have further deformities with medication.

Please do not be afraid of the medications. Yes, some

of them have some pretty scary sounding side effects,

but the chances of your having a really bad side

effect is very little. Taking medications is a choice

we need to make. Aggressive and early treatment of RA

is the way to go. I take medications because I want

to control the disease and not have it control me, and

so that I can have a quality of life.

I was dx 8 years ago, at the age of 45, and have been

on several medications since then. I credit the fact

that I do not have any x-ray findings of RA, and have

no visible deformities to the fact that I started

medications immediately upon diagnosis. Currently I am

taking Methotrexate and Enbrel which are both DMARDs,

Mobic which is an anti-inflammatory, and Ultram which

is a pain medication. Yes, I was very put off by some

of the side effects I have read about the medications

I am on now, and I have had some not so nice reactions

to some medications in the past, but I kept trying. I

also have fibromyalgia and take other meds for that.

I have also gone the route of trying other things to

deal with the RA, but always with taking medications

as well. Work the things together - better diet, some

exercise, and medications. But medications, IMO, are

an absolute must with this disease.

I hope that this has been of some help to you - we are

here for you, and understand your frustration,

confusion, and how scary this disease can be to live

with. Take care -

Kathe in CA

Kathe

" To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

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