Hi all

[Guest guest]

I am a 38 year old female and I was diagnosed with RA in April 2005.

One January morning I woke up in HORRIBLE pain and could not move the

whole right side of my body.I felt like I had been hit by a truck and

had a major 'flu at the same time...the night before I was perfectly

fine, no problems, but since that January morning my life has

drastically changed. I went to my family doc and he thought maybe I

had tendonitis or something like that. A few weeks later I went back

to him with a very swollen hand that I could hardly move! I was then

sent to an orthopedic doc who looked at my hand and said I had

arthritis...he did an x-ray, then I was sent back to the family doc

for blood tests. The RH factor was off the chart and I had extreme

inflammation in my blood. I've been through MRI's, x-rays, cat scans,

dozens of doctor visits, and so many blood tests that I've lost count

of them! I got in to see one of the best rheumy docs in upstate South

Carolina. She was shocked to see how fast the RA took hold of me and

started me out aggresively on med therapy within a few weeks!

I am now taking 5mg. Prednisone every morning, along with Relafin 2X

a day, at least 1000mg. of Calcium a day, a One-A-Day vitamin, and

Remicade every 8 weeks, and I alternate between Darvocet and Oxycodone.

Back in April my rheumy doc had me on MTX, it made me very SICK-I

felt like I had the 'flu all day, every day- with major

nausea...because of that, I had to go on FMLA at my work. I'm feeling

much better now-but I still have to live with permanent joint damage

in my wrist and bad days when I don't feel so well.

I go for my next Remicade infusion on the 24th, and so far it works

great for me. On my last visit, two other ladies had a bad reaction to

the Remicade and threw up. I sure hope that doesn't ever happen to me,

but I'm told it's a very real possibility. Has anyone else had a bad

reaction to Remicade? Has anyone else had RA to pop up overnight?

'