To Kathe

[Guest guest]

Hi Kathe,

Sorry to hear you are flaring up again. I seem to be in a holding

pattern, where the RA isn't completely under control, but at least

the prednisone keeps it to a minimum, and I take the Ultram when I

need to to be able to keep moving, or to be able to sleep at night.

I've been on the Arava for 3 weeks now, but on a low starting dose.

The good news is that I didn't have any side effects, but it wasn't

doing anything positive either. I went up to 20mg a day of Arava on

Tues., and have had some intestinal distress, but not TOO bad,

(nothing like with the Plaquenil!!!) and it seems to be a bit better

today, so maybe my body is getting used to it.

I saw the rheumatologist yeasterday, and she switched me to the

injectable Mtx. She is hoping that with that form, I'll have less

side effects, and we can increase the dose to where, between the

Arava and the Mtx, we'll start to see results.

If that doesn't work within the next 3 weeks, she'd like to try me

on Orencia, which she says has less problems with infections than

the TNF inhibitors.

So, I gave myself my first shot today. It was a little scary, but

it really wasn't hard, and it really didn't hurt at all when I did

it, just a little achey afterwards. I am afraid I might have lost

some of the medicine, though, as some seemed to come back out after

I withdrew the needle. Is that common?

I'm really hoping that with the injectable, I won't get sick

tonight, but we'll see!

--- In , Kathe Sabetzadeh <lv2ryd@...>

wrote:

>

>

> Hi Guys:

>

> Does it ever seem to you that when you have one thing

> under control, in my case, the FM is now under good

> control with my new pain med, Ultram, and the other

> medications, and now my RA is flaring! My joints are

> warm and painful, especially my feet, ankles, elbows,

> wrists, hands and fingers, and stiff. It's like when

> one is doing well, the other just flares back up, and

> you never get a time when both are under control! I

> am so stressed out about this!!!! Just give me one

> good day with nothing, no pain anywhere, no stiffness,

> no warmth, no swelling, no " fibro fog " , no muscle

> pain, no fatigue!!! Wouldn't that be wonderful! But

> no, when one is quiescent, the other takes it's place.

> Akkkkk........... just can't win lol.

>

> Kathe in CA

>

> Kathe

>

> " To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

>

>

>

> __________________________________________________

>