my mother

[Guest guest]

My mom, 76, has Rheumatiod Arthritis for about the past 20 years. She

was doctoring with a rheumatologist for about the first 15 years or

so. In January of 04 she came down with the Flu and ended up

hospitalized because the pain from her RA was so bad due to the flu.

At that time, I suggested she seek a different doctor because I had

been thinking for some time that her RA wasn't doing enough for her.

He had her only on ibuprophen and that's it. If she had a " flare " he

would put her on prednisone. It seemed like the only thing they gave

her that kept the RA under control. She ended up just seeing her

family physician for about a year after that and then went with a

doctor who has been an oncologist for years but has just recently

started taking RA patients. At about that same time she switched

doctors is when she started taking methotrexate although I cannot

remember which doctor first started her on the methotrexate. She has

been on that for about 2.5 years now. She also has been on

prednisone more or less nonstop since then too. They have tried to

wean her off of it a few times but she always ends up back in the

hospital about 2 weeks after her last dose and then she ends up back

on it again. When I had her in the ER 7th of July, they put her

back on 20mg a day. But then 7 days later, her dr. dropped it to 5mg a

day. Too big of a drop too soon if you ask me (they didn't ask me,

lol).

She keeps getting into these extreme

amounts of pain that can't seem to be controlled - I guess...

Yesterday she said she wasn't feeling too good again and I tried to

get her to call the doctor yesterday but she didn't " sound " toooo bad

and she said she would call first thing this morning. So I let it

go. Well, I get up this morning and find two messages from my sister

in law that they were taking her to the doctor's office at 9:30am. I

spoke briefly then to my SIL on her cell and she said mom was pretty

bad. By 1, I didn't hear anything so I called the doctor's office.

They said my SIL couldn't get mom out of the car so 2 nurses went out

to help and all 3 of them could not get her out of the car because

her body is wreaking with pain so bad. You just can NOT touch her

when she gets like this. So they sent her to the ER. The ER admitted

my mom and put her on morphine to control the pain. They did

bloodwork which they stated was " fine " . She had a temp of 102 so

they are assuming she has an infection somewhere but they don't know

where. They did a sinus scan but didn't get back the results yet.

This evening her doctor stopped in the room while I was out just long

enough to get a cup of coffee (just my luck). He ordered vicodin for

her pain, more antibiotics for whatever infection she has, an MRI of

her back, and an xray of her lower teeth thinking since they

are " bad " one of them may be infected.

I am SO FRUSTRATED!!! It's not like she has cancer

and there is nothing they can do! Rheumatoid arthritis should be a

manageable illness!

Whatever they are or

are not doing is not working! It seems like she keeps getting

infections and viruses and anytime she gets a pinch of ANYTHING it

throws her body into excrutiating unbearable pain for days on end. I

am interested to know what other people are using to manage their

RA. So I can tell her doctor what he needs to be doing!!! LOL!

Thanks!

Rhonda in PA